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Cowboys.
This he is Talking Cowboys, springing live from the Dallas Cowboys World Tours.
At the Star in Frisco.
Streets Adown and now your hosts Isaiah Standback, Nick Harris, John Mashoda, and Kyle Yeomans.
It's a Talking Tuesday edition of Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company.
We are live from the Star in Frisco, Texas, in the.
SWBC studios where the Dallas Cowboys are now ten and five following a Christmas Eve defeat at the hands of the Miami Dolphins. Twenty two to twenty was the final score, game winning field goal from Santa wins it for the Dolphins. As time expires, hope everybody had a safe and happy holiday weekend.
It's time to talk football again.
We've got Isaiah stand Back, We've got John Manchoda, no Nick Harris today, but Kyle Yeoman's here with Chris Beam in the back run and everything.
Gentlemen, how was there the weekend? Everybody good? Yeah?
Man, I flew on Christmas for the first time, so that was interesting. How was that honestly the exact same that it normally is, except there must have been less people out in the flight because I got upgraded first class.
Hey sappy about that?
About that? You told them who you are?
Yeah?
I did a lesson here, y'all.
No, but I thought that.
I don't know.
I thought it was going to be more of a hassle, and it was actually pretty easy to fly.
Is that maybe because everybody's already where they need to be by Christmas Day?
Is it the day before and day after?
That's more of the day after. It has to be terrible. Yeah, today has to be terrible. Yeah, I'm sure.
I would think that's the reason.
Yeah, it's probably what it is. That's good. Yeah. Yeah, So I had to fly on Christmas Day? We got back home. You good? Good from there?
I am? I'm ready to roll here?
Yeah, here you go. What about Tuesday? I got to sit down. It was awesome. Have you ever done that before, dude? Hardly ever, But it was awesome.
I made some pizzas with the fan don't want to look a little pizza oven and that was it.
Man. What the kiddos get this year? What it's saying and bringing?
I got my my soccer players got them a ball launcher, which is pretty much like a jugs machine for soccer players company out out of Europe, So that was pretty cool.
That was not cheap, but they need it and they're gonna use it. And what else?
What else happened? My daughter? My daughter's sky. She likes bath bombs, so she got a bunch of bath bombs. Okay, yeah, there's some other stuff in there too, but that's her number one and lights led.
Her room looks like a dog on nightclub. Okay, yeah, fog machine coming soon. It's crazy that they can smell fresh. Cash.
Yeah, cash there you go.
Uh yeah, that's fun. I hope everybody had fun over the holidays. How about you, Kyle?
It was fun Me and the wifey first Christmas married and in last Christmas Christmas kids so that wash.
Yeah, that was la Christmas.
You're gonna be able to get up at like nine o'clock row, No, my kids crawled in my bed at what five am?
Six am?
I heard him run around upstairs.
So her family does like Christmas Eve up really big, okay, And so as soon as we were done here, we went over to her uncle's house, which is in Dallas, and he's got a nice bar set up and they do like a big they call it the Feast of the Seven Fishes. It's just like an Italian tradition. So they've got like shrimp and sea bass and snapper and all sorts.
Of different stuff.
And so they like saved me a plate and they had like some raviolis and stuff, and so it was delicious. And then of course we did like our Christmas Eve, like gift.
Exchange, had some drinks flowing.
It was a long day.
We got home. We actually stayed at the in laws house. We got to the in laws at like one thirty, went to bed at like two thirty because we were just talking with.
A bit on Christmas.
Yeah, oh yeah, and then uh and then woke up early the next morning. I had a big breakfast, got back to our house, which where we hosted last night, and so it was nice.
It was a lot.
It was fun though, first and first, first and last.
From here on out, it's all about the kiddos, but it has facts, bro Yeah, no doubt about that.
My mom brought like a Santa sleigh full of gifts, like I mean, just packed my dag's pickup truck and brought it in.
I was like, why'd you why'd.
You go so big this year?
She was like, becuse this is the last one there you get.
She was like, I went big for y'all because next year it ain't about y'all.
Speaking of slag, did you tell everybody what Nate Newton got you?
Nate Newton?
On Sunday, we walked in for pregame and I walk in and there's this just a it's.
Almost like a sled Like it's like a sled full. It's like a furniture mover full of boxes of diapers. Yeah, there were four.
Massive boxes of diapers and he put a little note on top of it.
He said, don't open until Christmas Day. I was like, all right, that's awesome. It was fun. It was great. So lots of fun over the weekend. Let's talk about some news and notes. Though.
The Cowboys fall twenty two to twenty to the Dolphins, an unfortunate break for them as they.
Really had chances throughout the game to win.
It will dive deeper into that in a moment, but first let's hit what's happened since then?
Well, yeah, I mean Jerry's was on the radio this morning, So just with that, I would think the biggest things are the injury updates. He said that Tyron Smith got an injection last week, so I'm thinking that some type of a something in his back to kind of loosen things up, and that he was pretty hopeful that he'll be able to play Saturday against Detroit because he got that injection.
Not as positive on the Jonathan Hankins front.
Jonathan Hagen said in the locker room last week, I mean he thought Detroit was a good target date. He's from Detroit. He really wants to playing this game. Jerry's not ruling him out, but he's just not as certain about Jonathan Hankins. Jerry did say he thinks rookie Mazzie Smith has been coming on.
We can get to that and a little bit.
Later still Bury Jerry Jones and being super optimistic about the team's chances of making a deep playoff run, saying some of the same stuff he's been saying for the last few weeks of how he wouldn't trade positions with anybody else, which I don't know about that.
I think if you get that one seed.
And the way this team's been playing at home, to have that all throughout the playoffs.
I think you'd rather have that.
But he does say that his biggest reason of optimism is is Dak Prescott and the way he's been playing. But this one's the most interesting one that I know we'll get into a little bit just because of the fact that Mike has been so vocal about it and it's just him not drawn to holding call since October.
And I'm not going to read everything that Jerry said, I'll just kind of sum it up, and it was basically that he's saying similar things to what Mike has said last week, and that's reps are making judgment calls on if a player is being held, but they weren't going to be able to make that play, then they're
not calling that as much. So and what Jerry brings up and what Micah brings up is that, well, he's a free and so you shouldn't be judging him on the same thing that you're judging other edge rushers, you know. And so I think that that that's something that you know, Jerry mentioned when Steven being on the competition committee, maybe
it's something they look at in the offseason. I just know the teams that have the top edge rushers all are kind of complaining about this, you know, like whether you talk about like a Miles Garrett at Aiden Hutchinson, you know, the bosas like it's just something where they don't want it to be judgment cause if a guy's being held, call it even if he is a little
bit away from the play. That that for maybe another player that I won't name because I don't want to take any shots at anybody, but like for Michaeh Parsons, Michael Parsons can make that play.
You know.
My whole thing in all this is that let me just state at the beginning that I do think that this team over the last few years complains.
Way too much about the officials.
Let me just start with that, so I don't want to sound like somebody that just oh blameing officials for everything, because I think I think that that's been an issue.
Isaiah's talked about this.
I remember you bringing this up in twenty twenty Toach McCarthy was, yeah.
Yeah, I think that there might be a little bit behind the scenes.
I don't know this as a fact, but I feel like just from off the last few years that there is kind of almost a rallying cry being told to the players as in, it's us against the world, it's us against that team, the other opponent, the rafts, everything, And I don't know that I love that, So I just want that to be stated first before I say
what I'm about to say. It's ridiculous to have somebody's talented as Micah Parsons to favor right now to be Defensive Player of the Year in the NFL not have a single holding call since October's That's ridiculous, Like there's just there's no way that that is possible, you know. And I'm not sitting here saying that he needs to get all the calls that let's say, like Michael Jordan or Lebron James doing their prime, but he needs to get more calls. He deserves the benefit of the doubt
because of the type of player he is. And again, I covered the Dallas Cowboys, so I'm speaking about Micah. But you can say the same thing like I said Miles Garrett and Hutchinson. Some of these freak elite edge rushers, like I get what Mica is saying that they don't want you to wrect the game because they wanted to be an offensive game, you can let a couple of these go and let a guy have two three sacks, and because to be honest with you, none were called
in that game and for most of that game. If you weren't a fan of the Dolphins or Cowboys, let's not act like. That game was just so entertaining and it was just so great and the NFL just did such a great job with the two top offenses in the NFL. There was plenty in that game where you were just like, if you if you respect the game and you just watch as a fan that knows football, you appreciate it because you know, those are two of the top teams the NFL going at it, so whatever
the score is is another thing. But to sit there and say that we got to make it so offensive first that we can't allow freak edge rushers to do their thing, I think that that's an issue.
Yeah, what do you think? I concur I believe that. Sorry, I think that might get off up like this gets you that rile though. Now I'm not one to point the finger at the referees. I hate that.
But there is some facts of that, right, There's some some reality to the fact that Mike is getting held substantially, and it's unfortunate he's not getting the calls. Frustration is warranted. People are talking about how he needs to pull off on the quarterback.
Like when you're.
Getting held play after play after play, you're winning your assignment play after play after play, and the only reason why you're not making the plays because you're being held and it's not being called. When you finally get to the quarterback, Oh, he's gonna pay for it. He's gonna pay for it. So you know, shout out to Micael for continue to fight. This dude won his assignment. He
probably scored eighty percent on his on pass rushes. I mean, his dude's all over the place of the other night, and you know, shout out to him and trying his best to keep his head cool and trying to let you know, Jerry and everybody else handle the political.
Side of it.
But it has to be beyond frustrating when when you're literally beating people play in and play out and you're not getting the call.
That's god.
I mean, it has to be absolutely frustrating. And for people who don't understand it, I just flip it out and say ceedee lamb goes out there, gets ten, gets ten ballster on his way, he only catches two because on the other eight he was being held and none of those were called p I like Erabody would be losing their mind right now. They should be the same way that they feel in regards to Micah.
And I'm not sitting here saying that you know they need to call you know, oh, every time Michael Parsons play, there's going to be four or five holding calls a game. But I'm gonna tell you this right now, just one. I don't think you need to see. Now, this isn't a holding, yeah, But I don't think you need to watch that game and see anymore than the Deshaun Elliott play on the goal line against Tony Pollard to show you how one play can make such a huge difference
in the entire game. So if it's just a drive, maybe one of those field goal drives is a punt, yeah, because of the holding call. And it talk about the fifty.
Yard field goals, like one sack there takes them completely out of field goal rank. I like when you brought up about you have to look at the player at the same time, And I mean these officials.
They study as much as anybody.
I mean, they know the rule book, they know the players, they know the teams, The teams know the officials. At the same time, there's ways that you can still have the back of the mind and say that's Michael Parsons. He can make that play as opposed to this other guy that that's still an NFL player, but there's no way he's getting this, but Michah Parsons can get there.
Yeah, they're very true, but I don't think that should ever be taken into an account on a decision to make of a throw flag or not. If it's a foul, it's a foul, right, Yeah, I mean, like take the player out of it. You should be able to you should be able to have to go blind folded with you know, in terms of the player, in terms of number, and just say okay, that's a holding call.
So we need to change the mindset.
Yeah, across the board, because a lot of times when MICA's being held it's not even him coming from the outside, it's him coming from the intense and so like he's beating centers, he's beating guards, and these guys don't have the lateral agility to be able to keep up with him, so all they can do is hold. So he's literally running through arms to try to get to quarterbacks and it's blatant. You know, it'd be one thing it was like, I don't know, but these are blatant holds. So I
mean he has a legitimate case. I hate the fact that this is a conversation, but they do have to make some alterations. And to your point, it's not just Micah, but Micah is probably actually, I'll say it, Micah is the most explosive defensive player in the NFL, and it's very difficult to stay in front of him, especially when dan Quinn's literally drawing up man on man matchups for him.
Do you think, with them not having drawn any holding calls since October, you think composing teams like it's a coaching point where it's like, hey, the stud's a freak. If he beats you grab them a little bit. They're not calling it, So just grab him a little bit if you have to. We know that you're not gonna be able to stand.
Well, that's what coaches are saying anyway, right, if he's beating, you like grabbing him, we rather have a holding call than him hitting our quarterback.
You see how hard to hit Tua. Yeah, like Tua's soul feels that today.
Look at last night against the Ravens and the forty nine Ers, Trent Williams gets out, leaves the game.
In the fourth quarter.
The offensive line for the forty nine Ers all of a sudden struggling. A couple of plays later, brock Perty gets hit and he's out of the game.
And then Sam Darnold has to.
You rather hold than give up the same thing on a on a touchdown, right, if you're a defensive back and you get beats, like, grab this joke, grab him.
There's nobody if you don't have any over the.
Top hill, grab this joker and hopefully don't get the flag, but if you do, we're okay with that because it's not a touchdown.
Yeah.
Yeah, It's just crazy.
How the value of Lane Johnson, Trent Williams, Tyron Smith on these downe the three top teams the NFC, and obviously people that follow the NFL know they're good players, but their value is probably people don't respect it as much as they probably should, just how important they are to the rest of the team and Obviously we'll get into, you know, not having Tyrant in the game. But yeah, that was it from Jerry, you know, not he was
not firing Brimstone ripping anybody. This is their first time that they've lost two games in a row since Thanksgiving twenty twenty one. So I tuned in like I always do, but I did not expect him to be just ripping people and things like that. It's not really his style when it's late in the season like this. So but yeah, those are probably highlights from it.
Yeah, and before we get into the game itself. In terms of the loss, it.
Does affect playoff positioning, but not as much as any other loss would because this was to an AFC team. It does not affect any of the conference tiebreaker, the divisional tiebreaker, and it does not affect the common opponent time breaker because if Philly were to lose again anyways, they would get that game back because Philly did beat Miami, so right now they own that tiebreaker.
But if they lose one of those.
Other games, that means either both teams lost to Arizona or they lost to New York and Dallas didn't, so they would regain that tiebreaker again.
They still need.
Philly to lose.
That's ultimately what it comes down to.
You can't win the division now by winning out and hopefully having the strength of victory, so it takes the strength of victory possibility away.
It also pretty much.
Negates you from the top seed in the NFC as well, even with San Francisco losing last night, because you lose a week to try and catch up to San Francisco, so that's out of the question as well. The division still intact, the two seed still intact, because you would defeat the Lions this week in order to get there. So I mean, if you win your final two games, you need the same result in order to win the division.
So it doesn't change a whole lot other than some of those little minuscule things into terms of the playoffs seating as well. All right, when we come back here on Talking Cowboys, let's dive into the offensive side of the ball. Like John said, Tyron Smith, the value is there. How did they look up front? How did Dak Prescott look in the twenty two to twenty loss to Miami on Sunday more Talking Cowboys.
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Today, Cowboys fans. After that move, We've just coined the term rowdy replay. Let's roll back the table.
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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 there, doctor?
My friend supported me during a tough time. But what's the right gift best?
Thanks for being a soldier to cry out. Okay, this one's easy, I say, give her a delicious doctor pepper. Nothing says thanks, gu 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 portion of the show is brought to you by Quaker Oats, a super trusted super food.
Quaker Oats the official oatial sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys. Did you get him in this morning?
You know I did, Kyle?
Did you get him in on Christmas morning?
I sure did not? Oh no, I know.
I had to wait till I came to the facility.
You don't have Quaker Oats readily available at the crib.
I'm well, my wife, you made like a bunch of cinner rolls and stuff, so I have some working out to do.
Okay, So you did cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls in.
The morning and then did the pizza. Mm hmm, you're living your best life.
I love it.
I didn't think of but you know what, so on what you have deering games.
We're driving to my facility so my kids could test out that machine. And somebody had their car stopped working, so I got out and helped push their car.
So I got I burned some galleries. They counts. Yeah, did they there was a whole vehicle now here. Look, I'm gonna go push this car. Yeah, it was a whole vehicle, you know.
Yes, well my wife was actually my wife was like stop the car. I'm hopping out. I'm like, actually I'll get out. You stay, you stay right here, I'll go do it. The uh Was.
It like the crowded kid popped the glud ude? My wife, she always was be number one. I'm like, just.
The uh, the the individual that you help out.
Did they immediately like when they saw you get out of the car.
Did they say, oh, my gosh, that's Isaiah stand back from Washington.
They thought I was Jesse. Holly, ah, Jess, it's a black.
It is really funny how many times we'll go out to the stadium, will be like about to do our pregame show, and.
They'll be like Jesse, Jesse, Like, no, as Isaiah, Guy, Isaiah, that's wrong.
It happens a lot.
Oh, it happens a lot.
Yeah, asked Jesse too, because it happens both ways too. Jesse gets called Isaiah's.
Yeah. It's not great.
Okay, all right, let's get into this matchup twenty two twenty for the Dallas Cowboys. If you have a text question or you want to you want to be a part of the show eight one seven, two nine zero three two nine eight.
We've got the text lines open right now. We'll answer some of those questions.
But I wanted to start on the offensive side of the football. The offensive line certainly had their struggles to Madoga had left tackle Tyron Smith out with the back injury, and it didn't look great, Isaiah.
When you looked at how the.
Game progressed behind the offensive line, was it enough to build confidence even if Tyron Smith's not available moving forward?
I guess it depends on the opponent. That defensive line is solid.
Now, I mean, you can't look at that defensive line and think that they're the same that you're going to face week in the week out. Now, teams that you're going to play facing the playoffs, yeah, the most likely they'll have d line similar. But that's the third best, statistically speaking, best defensive line in the game of football in terms of pressure rate. Those guys are only two notches down from Dallas, and we know how much Dallas puts a heat on the opponent. So they struggled, and
they mean collectively, they struggled. You know, Tyrone's presence was missed dearly. You know, if we talked about it going into the week, if Tyron wasn't going to be able to play, Bradley Chubbs is going to be, you know, lacing up his shoes.
You know.
I think I said on the pregame show, he probably zipped tied him so he didn't have the time in the middle of the game.
He just he was excited and he had a day. He had a field day.
And that's the real expectation though, I mean that's to ask Trumanny Doga to stop Bradley Chubb playing a playout is an unrealistic expectation. It's just it's two different levels of talent. That's no knock on him, It's just some players are better than others, and he is substantially beneath Bradley Chubb and that whole entire defensive line Wilkins. Wilkins
causes havoc. I mean, there were those guys wore running around now they are office A line fought, but Dak was fighting for his life literally play in and play out, and Tool was fighting for his life on the flip side. Right, but like Dak was fighting for his life. So shout out to Dak for extending plays and making it hard on them to get him down. But it was a battle up front, man, And like you said, you missed, you missed a big boy on the left side.
Yeah, Chubb was pretty vocal running to the locker room after the game. It was funny because you know, you get so focused on covering the team that you know that you cover that sometimes you forget about the some of the storylines for the other teams. And he was just running in the locker room yelling about because I was the only Cowboys report of there. There were a couple of other people that cover the Dolphins, but you got to kind of walk by their locker room to
get to the Cowboys. I'm like, oh, let me just stop here and see them running or whatever. Yeah, and he was yelling about how I thought.
He said we couldn't beat a good team.
None of you thought we could be a good team. Know what you're gonna say now write that in your little articles.
I'm just like, I'm not gonna write that, but okay, this is interesting to see this. Also, you had a good game, but it also helps if maybe somebody blocks you and they don't just let you run free. But anyway, to your point, though, I think he was very happy about those opportunities. Man, I hate to just give you such a blanket statement, but I don't see any way this team makes a deep playoff run if they're missing any of those starting that best five offensive line, any
of them. Obviously, Tyron is ridiculously important left tackle. You know, when they've been together, he's been playing great, him and
Tyler together. But I think any of those starting five, there's just such a drop off that I might be you might be able to go to you know, Tampa or New Orleans or Atlanta or something like that, but you're not gonna beat like a San Francisco or Detroit or Philadelphia on the road without one of those unless there are those teams are decimated by injuries, which is obviously a possibility. But sure if if they're relatively healthy, and the Cowboys look like they'll be relatively healthy, they
need that that that best five. There's just too much of a drop off to whoever the person is. You know, people talk about, oh, maybe you need to make Chiuma be the left guard and then Tyler Smith, the left tackle. I still think there would have been issues there too.
There.
How do you feel about that? For people that say that anyway, By.
The way, no, it's too late Okay, I would have been in agreeance with that early on.
It's too late now.
So if you had practice reps, I mean you're talking about two practices a week and it's really more like one and a half.
This is probably a loaded question, but I want to ask it anyway.
Load up of those starters, and based upon who backs them up, who would you rather not have if you had to pick somebody to not play, so like, based upon their backups.
If God came down himself and said, you choose one guy to miss the rest of the season, yep, based upon their backup.
I hate that, but.
I gotta I'm probably leaning Terrence Steele. And the only reason I say it is because I don't know what they got snapping the ball.
If they don't, they just don't.
There has not been really anybody that you trust that backup center for a while.
So that's center. Definitely can't afford to center.
Yeah, Tyler right guard?
My guards, you know, if I think if I'm senting my guards are Tyler Smith and Zach Martin.
I so who comes in for Tyler?
I mean if it comes there for Terrence, probably Trumadoga, right tax. So that's saying this is based upon this is based upon who feels in for them. Who do you feel most confident with if somebody had to miss?
Yeah?
Probably Yeah, But I mean you're talking about taking away Terrence Steele as opposed to taking away Tyron Smith. And if I can have Tyron Smith healthy all the way through, I'm taking it because you.
Can see so Dak's front side is even you rather have where Deck's front side.
There's been so many communication issues on the road that concerned me that to move your center out I just think leads to so many more of those.
You know, TJ.
Bass hasn't given you any confidence that right guard.
He's not Zach Martin. I'm nobody's any of the starters. Yeah, I'm saying based upon your confidence in the backup.
Again, I think Zach Martin's a big part of that's just his play, but his but the communications stuff up.
There that you know, what you get out of TJ. Bass. Yeah, I'm not putting them in right, I'm not taking Zach Zach Martin, get it, it's just sucky could question.
However, the other thing about basically based upon why I know about TJ. Bass, I would feel most confident with TJ. Bass feeling in for Zach Martin than I would for any of the other positions.
Still going with Terren Steele. I'm still going with Terren Steele. And we're in the playoffs now, TJ. Bass, you can play right guard. I'm putting Zach out to right tackle again. This a this is This isn't Week one. This is playoffs.
I like you. I like your thinking, sir. That's the second hand. I mean, last heard him.
I understand it. But but this is he did a good job. This is the end of the end of the season.
You got a guy like Zach Martin that I mean, how many more years does he have left? And in terms of I think he has a lot left in terms of playing football, not a lot, but I mean he's got years left. But how many chances do you have have to have this? Because here's my thing, Like, I don't just look at the Cowboys, I'm looking at
all of the NFL. There was a little conversation the press box after between me and another reporter about that who took issue with Mike McCarthy calling that a juggernaut game. I go, it is a juggernaut game. Look across the rest of the NFL and tell me outside of obviously Niners Ravens, Like, what would be a matchup that you'd be like, Oh, that's just way bigger than that. Those are two of the best teams, your chiefs that everybody wants to let your go.
To answer all the time.
They're not that right now, you know, the the Bengals not having Joe Burrow like those those go to right now. So it's like, well, okay, it's you know, you got like the Ravens, the Bills, the Dolphins are right there with them.
Yeah you know.
And then you go over to the NFC like what.
I didn't want to cut you off before the first segment ended, but when you brought up the whole thing about the Philadelphia thing a month ago, I'd say, this, this division's done. You don't even need to play the games. I watched them play the last few weeks and you're just like, I mean, no, they.
Could lose one of these games.
Oh yeah, you know.
So because of that, there just isn't it. That was a juggernaut game. Those are two of the best six seven teams in the NFL.
YEP, I completely agree.
And you look at there's six or seven contenders right now, and Dallas is right on the borderline of being that.
I mean, Miami's there, Baltimore is definitely there. I think if there was an AFC pick for me to win the Super Bowl right now, it would be the Baltimore Ravens.
They looked really good. Yeah, sorry to go off on that. I know we're talking Zach Martin.
I think it's warranted.
I think Buffalo, if they keep moving in the right direction, they can maybe reinsert themselves back into that conversation, but are not there yet. Cleveland not there yet. Nobody in the South, nobody in the AFC West. Then you go to the NFC East. Philadelphia certainly can get back to that, but they're not playing well.
Dallas has lost two straight.
I mean, there's still ways that they can get back into that conversation. Detroit's in that conversation, and then San Francisco that's it. I mean, the Rams are playing well, they can maybe get back up there, but they're not there yet. There are only six or seven teams that you were comp it in that could make a run if they play their best football, and I think Dallas if they play their best football, which includes their offensive line being healthy, they can make a run.
If they made if they made a deep playoff run that included them winning on the road, there'd be a lot about talking. We would look back and talk about the Buffalo game in the Miami game and how it did get them. Not the Buffalo game because it was such a blowout, but this Miami game about going on the road and playing a tough opponent like that. Now, of course they got to go and win those games in the playoffs for that Dad, but I think we would look back on, Man, that was a tough stretch.
You have to go to Buffalo with the well as well they as they were playing, and then at Miami uh as well. So So yeah'm moving Zach Martin the right tagle.
That's hysterio.
Sorry, I like it.
I think it's good because I'm not moving Zach Martin out of the rotation at all.
That's not happening.
Just before we move on, I feel like there was a show back in Oxnar and California that was talking about if if one of those starting five guys goes down, then.
That's kind of a problem. I forgot which show was Talk.
Talk, Talking Talking Boys, Talking Talk, Talking Boy. Dak Prescott, how did you feel like he played against Miami John whenever you look at his stat line in the way that he played twenty of thirty two, two hundred and fifty three yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions. Played well, but it goes back to what we were just talking about. He was under pressure quite a bit.
Yeah, I thought he played like an MVP at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game.
But there were definitely there.
I mean, there were some misses on some things that when you watch the game over again, especially from different camera angles, where you're like, yeah, well, you know, it's tough to make that read when you know that you don't have that much time because you're not being protected like you normally are. If they had their normal offensive lineup there, I just think it's a different game. They're
just there were guys open. You know, I'm a big fource feed my star player gets, so I didn't like I didn't like going away from CD there as much in the second and third where I don't know this to be true. This is just me taking an outside look on things, and I'm not saying that there's no any fact that it's just me just talking.
Dak is such a good dude that part.
Of me wonders if he's like, no, I got to get more guys involved, as opposed to no, I'm just going.
Down the field.
It's me and CD all all game whatever like that. I just feel like he tries to get other people. There's more so than maybe some other players would.
Is that ever a thought process from a quarterback standpoint, Yes, kind of.
I know it sounds stupid.
Yeah, I don't think it's stupid. Gets a legitimate question.
I've never seen.
Well, I shouldn't say never, because there probably is a game to do, but I almost never see a game where it just like you just know, hey, I'm just going to these one or two guys like he will. He has so much trust and even guys that like when we're watching the yeah, exactly, we got when we're watching the game, like he's got so much trust and so many players that there's plays that he'll throw.
To some guys.
I just like, man, I can't believe he would trust him in that situation, but he trusts everyone that's out there.
Tobert went up and made up he did, he did.
I have a question. It's not Dak related. Okay, well, I wanted to answer that last question, Dak. I think Dak fought his tail off. Yeah, yeah, this game is nowhere near as close if Deck doesn't do Deck things.
Yeah. Yeah, he kept you in the game. He's been keeping you in a game.
That drive at the end of the game, if Dallas gets a defensive stop there and they win it twenty to nineteen, I think that might be as that could be an MVP moment.
It really could have been.
Yeah, Now, he still would have had to play lights out the last two weeks of the season.
Don't get me wrong. There was a long way to go. I don't think he's winning.
So he could have gone back and looked at that that drive specifically where he kept them alive.
That could have been his MVP moment. It's not anymore. That's that's it.
And they throw to Cooks.
I mean it was a great catch by Cooks, you don't get me wrong, But the throw with like Rick Ramsey in position and just the fact what had happened right before that that had everything written on like, oh, they just blew this drive the way they get on the one yard line, half yard line and then run that instead of just running the ball, they try and roll him out and then he takes that sack.
You're just do you enough of these games?
Was like, h here we go.
Yeah, this isn't Yeah, but he overcame that. Yeah, all right.
What was your question?
Why has Tony power only averaged thirteen touches a game?
Again, I don't know this to be a fact, but since we're just throwing stuff out there, I wonder if he's all the way back to the Tony Pollard he was before. I think that there's a little bit And even if they were, I just keep going back to
this thing. Last year of that Skip Pete said about how it was such a good compliment between Zeke and Tony because Tony's at his best when you know, he is interesto, he's getting a little bit more rest, you know, because then when he gets in there, he's got a chance to turn those like maybe a five six year gain into fifteen twenty and stuff like that. And so I'm wondering if that they're trying to keep him fresh
during the games for those home run type abilities. You know, Like, I think he's closer to where he was last year, but I don't think that he's been that way all season long in terms of being one hundred percent back from that, you know, the broken leg, ankle injury, the drop tackle one in San Francisco.
But I don't know.
I mean, do you think the running games working at a point where you want to see more touches?
Twelve carries three point two yards per carry.
He's averaging thirteen, and that's heavily weighted in a front carries thirteen touches. Thirteen touches because on the front half of the season there was a couple of games where he had twenty plus touches. That's really you know, kind of boostings right now. But he's I mean every postgame it seemingly is like twelve touches, eleven touches, Yeah, thirteen
touches and taking the ball. I mean, first of all, everybody's looking at the hundred liftkey play right now, and it should have never got there, correct, because Tony Polers should have scored.
Let's put that out there right now, Okay, so.
I'd love to address that real quick. Because you watched the film, you can you can go back and look at it.
There's a there's a freeze point in that All twenty two where it looks like a walking touch How is it not a touchdown?
Like with Tony Pollard.
Tony Pollard, I.
Know there's a linebacker that's scraping over the top and there's a there's he comes up and he lays a hit, and good play from him.
But it was a weak effort.
It really was.
It was weak and Tony Pollard, as much as we want to see more of him, and I agree, I think he needs more touches to get into a rhythm to.
A certain there's accountability factor there.
But we've been saying, I mean, we are in week seventeen and we're saying, well, we've seen glimpses of it. It looks like that's the old Tony Pollard. He's done nothing, nothing to show me at this point that he is the old Tony Polloin one one hundred yard game this year, I'm surprised there's even been one.
One one it was Cardinals. Oh yeah, that's probably why I forgot about it. Other than that the last.
We can go back going in reverse thirty eight yards, fifty two yards, fifty nine yards, sixty eight, seventy nine, sixty one, fifty five, fifty one, fifty three, thirty twenty nine, and I can keep going.
I've been the biggest.
Tony Pollard supporter throughout his time here.
I've been big onto Tony Pollard when he was having his success. I say, get him the rocket, him the rocket, him a rock. Even now, I still think he's there, but he has done nothing to show confidence or build my confidence in what Tony Pollard can do.
So I'm wondering if they're saying the same. Oh well, I mean they have the hole.
Oh yeah, I mean you gave nine carries to Dak No No No to Dak Ceedee Lamb Cavante, Turpin and Brandon Cooks and two and they and they ran the ball pretty well out of those nine carries, I got a little over fifty sixty yards.
Yeah.
So it was just apparent to me early on when they were some of the stuff they were doing the run game, they were like, we're not gonna be able to get this done with our normal run game.
We're gonna have to do some some other.
Things because we have to run the football, but we can't get it done doing the traditional running style. Let me ask let me ask this though, do you think that is the whole season and even if you did have Tyron Smith it would be the same way. Or do you think because Tyrant's Smith wasn't out there, they went away from Tony a little bit.
I think that head of impact is this is the whole year.
This is the entire year.
I think so too.
I'm every post game, you know, I sit up there and say, very Chargy fils.
During the game, if anything, to MYDOGA is better in the run game run blocking than he is pass blocking, So you would want to run the ball more to give Tony Pollard some of those such Yes.
I mean this is this is crazy.
Just to go t everybody type in Tony polar stat to look at every game, it's just twelve, twelve, eleven, thirteen, eleven, nine eight, and then you have a couple of those games early on it was twenty five, twenty three in twenty at three games this year where he had over twenty touches or more, that's it.
I just really I hope we see the Tony Pollard of old because he's so fun man.
Like, that's the thing is I feel bad for the last I feel.
Bad for Cowboys fans because Tony Pollard as the number one back, as Tony Pollard was in the past couple of years, Like he finally gets that opportunity this year.
I thought he had a chance.
To explode and just be that dude and he and he hasn't. He's been serviceable, he's been decent. He's done some things what right. He hasn't done some things right on the other end. But I think we're we're at the moment we're not seeing that, and I don't know if it'll ever come.
I'm telling you, man, between this and the Zeke and this team's just drafting running backs from now on, Like it's such a young man's game.
It's crazy.
That sucks.
But isn't it crazy how how Tony Powler is barely getting any touches, but yet Zeke is running all over the place. Yeah yeahs to him like a Bill cow Yeah.
Yeah.
When I mean drafting running backs, I don't mean like top five pick, first roundrunning back. I mean drafting guys that you know, like Tony third, fourth round.
Ricot free agent. Yeah, yeah, you've.
Got such a it's such a physical you know.
Yeah, it's a young man's game. I don't see them.
But before we move on from a from a running game com station, have you lost trust in Hunter Lipkey?
No? No, I mean yeah, that play that play.
Obviously you can't have that happen in that game and that that can cost you. But I just think I don't know if it's just him individually as the player, or it's the fact of I don't think that they can run the ball effectively against good teams traditionally, and so I like having that mixed in there, because just doing it the old fashioned way that they had been done doing it in the past before this year, I
didn't that's not getting it done anymore. So I think that you need him uh involved, and you need him to be a threat to where teams think that he could potentially get the ball, you know. Yeah, obviously he'd love to have that playback. That's terrible on the goal line. But no, I haven't.
I agree. I don't.
I'm sitting in the next seat, that's true.
Maybe it's where I have to I have to. I'm totally going to ask him about it to because I'm.
Right, right right, I agree.
I don't think you should lose trust in him. It was just it was a bad play. It really was.
All right.
Let's switch the ball, Let's switch to the defensive side. They had a nice day. We've got to talk about it when we come back.
Though. Here on talking Cowboys.
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To Talking Cowboys.
Back here on Talking Cowboys presented by a Black Rifle Coffee Company. This segment of the show is brought to you by him visil Line, the official.
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Back with John Machoda, Isaiah's stand back Chris Beam in the back of Kyle Yeoman's Nick Harris out today, but he is listening, and he sent in a text to answer Isaiah's question. If we were playing unfortunate circumstances and you had to remove somebody from the offensive line for the rest of the season, who would you be more confident in filling in?
He said, brock Hoffman isn't.
Tyler Biattish, but he feels like he could hold his own in the interior. I think that's the only one that could plug in and be okay up front with So that's Nick Harris's.
Vote, Nick, We're moving Zach Martin to right tackle. Okay, still already.
Figured it out. We've already done it.
By the way, Isaiah wasn't the only one that was talking about having TJ Bass as a confident backup. There are multiple text messages on our text line, by the way, A one to seven two nine zero three two nine eight, multiple text messages that say, if if you've got to remove somebody, at least have TJ Bass go in. So moving Tyler her excuse me, moving Zach out the right tackle and keeping TJ Bass in there. I mean, I think we figured it out.
Because he solved it all.
I think we've done next.
Sorry, Terrence Steele, I don't know what happened to you, but that's just it seems like something happened.
All right.
Let's flip to the defensive side of things.
Defense only allowing one offensive touchdown, but in between the twenties, they gave up plenty of yardage.
Miami was able to move the ball pretty much it will until they got inside the thirty the twenty, and then they seemingly pit or pattered out and had to settle for five field goals. They hit all five of them.
What were your thoughts John on the defense and how they performed on Sunday.
I thought about Isaiah on that fifty hour bomb to Jalen Waddle early in the game. I was like, Oh, here we goes could be going on all day.
This might be bad.
It should have been a touchdown before that.
In reality, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I was the way the game started, I was like, Oh, this is not gonna be good for the Dallas Cowboys at all. But yeah, they tightened up, and I will say that I was. I expected them to play better defensively than they did against Buffalo in terms of the mistackles things like that. But in no way did I ever think they were holding Miami to twenty two points and really one touchdown. And I don't think Miami was
thinking that. You can tell by McDaniel's decision making early on where he didn't go for the field goal and went for it.
I think it was like fourth and five too. It wasn't even a real close.
Fourth down, And I think it's because everybody felt like, oh, this game's going in the thirties. You know you're gonna need touch now. If you can't settle for field goals. But the way the game kind of evolved was the way how the Cowboys defense was playing. You saw McDaniel be like, all right, we'll take these field goals now, of course, I mean their kicker, I mean fifty two to fifty four to fifty seven outside.
I mean that was that was impressive.
So that's a little bit more to Lena, But I mean that was the main thing I wrote about off of the game was I was like, if they're going to make a deep playoff run, the defense has to play like this every time against a really good team. And did they let up in the end. Yeah, they needed to be better on that final drive, But overall, I thought they played. I thought it was a winning effort. I thought they played good enough for them to win that game.
To twenty four to thirty seven, two hundred and ninety three yards a touchdown, And the most impressive stat for me is the fact that they went from two sixty six against the Buffalo Bills rushing yards allowed to just ninety one against a really good rushing attack of the Miami Dolphins.
So it's fascinating to watch how quick he gets the ball out and like all the different movement that they do on the line to get guys open and things like that, And I mean, in a way, it's it. I want to see it against good teams in the playoffs to see if this thing can hold up. But there is a part where you're like, man, if teams can do that, maybe you don't need the greatest offensive line because you're just moving it so quick and they're not calling holds against Mike Persas.
So it is. It was.
It was fun to watch that to see how quick, like, you know, they were doing a lot of stuff, you know, at the Lions crimination.
And I really liked the physicality that Dallas boy.
And they brought at all four quarters, which is exactly what you did not do against Buffalo, and you needed to do if you're going to build some confidence going into the playoffs.
Tank Lawrence DeMarcus Lawrence was phenomenal. He's talking like.
One of the best games of his career.
He's had some really good games taking on three people at a time, and it's not something that's going to show up in the box score. Everybody at home is probably gonna say, oh my gosh, you only had two combined tackles and he didn't have a sack or a tackle for loss.
He was effective impact baby.
And you could see the the energy he brought, the tackling ability that that rallied around him. I thought it was the best this defense has looked against the run, against a formidable run attack.
Yep, maybe all season. And I say that because you've talked about it before. When teams are dedicated to running the football down the throat to this Dallas defense, it's usually effective. For sure, Miami was they wanted to run the football, and sure there were times where it was effective, but overall, you did not allow it to hurt you. What hurt you was the fact that your offense petter pattern in the second and fourth or second and third
quarter and you couldn't find a rhythm. That's what ended up hurting you. I thought this defense played well enough to win.
Defense played lights out. You talked about some of the individual players in terms of the law. He was disruptive as all get out. I think Milice Cooker had one heck of a game coming up and being physical and just bringing guys down at the point of contact. Collectively, as a defense, these guys had a seventy five percent effectiveness rate in the red zone. You know, the Dolphins were only one of four in the red zone, which is out of this world. That was number one team
in the league in the red zone. They were sixty eight percent I think going into the game red zone effectiveness. So they balled out man tackles for loss. Okay, they only allowed ninety one yards on the ground. They had four tackles for loss. I mean, I mean they played on the other side of the line of scrimmage and they created havoc in the backfield they had.
Tua had a terrible game. I mean, coverage wise.
You know, I don't want to take anything away from our defense, but they had guys open. They had a lot of guys open, a lot of opportunities. But Tua was back there like he was constipated. He was not stable. Okay, he did not feel safe at all. He was back there. He had the happy feet, he was overthrowing things. He was just not accurate because he didn't feel like he could sit back there and sit on his back leg without getting his head knocked off. That's a testament to
his entire defensive line. And yeah, I mean, I think they did what they needed to do in order to put their team in position to win the ball game. To your point, offense just did not do enough, and unfortunately, holding Miami to twenty two points didn't work in.
Your favor, you know. And that's that's something that you would take all day long.
Hey, can you stop the number one offense in the league, number one passing offense, the number four rushing offense, number one scoring offense to twenty two points? I think you would have taken that and said, yeah, we're going to pretty much win the ball game, yep. And unfortunately you didn't.
Yeah, it was unfortunate that. That's what hurts.
This about this the most is the fact that you had chances. Dallas had certain chances throughout the game, and whether it's the lip key fumble or the play before that, or there were opportunities late in the game.
They had a shot, they had a shot, and they didn't take it.
And it feels very reminiscent of Week nine against Philadelphia. It's just exactly where I'm looking at is, Hey, they were there, there were things to build on.
But you lost the Game's that's what it looked like.
But instead of it being twenty eight twenty three and you had plays go the opposite direction throughout is the same sort of deal.
And you lost twenty two to twenty.
Philly game they had Schoonmaker on the one, gets sap this game they had the Tony Pollard on the one.
Stuff like that.
You know, just how it comes down to just those little plays there. And it's been funny because yeah, people say game inches and you just kind of roll your eyes, like, yeah, we've heard this a million times, you know, but it really they're in big games, it really is.
But you know, I know we're talking about a lot of frustrations and a lot of frustration points. But I like to take the positive. I know, we gotta get out here in a second, get to go. This game was a positive even though you lost. And I say that because you've had the opportunity now over the last two weeks and you're about to run to it for a third week in a row to play playoff football before the playoffs.
Without the playoff consequences.
You've had the opportunity to play have playoff experience without having playoff ramifications. And if you don't take that as a positive and address all the things that you've put on film and use that now to help you you win. The playoffs present themselves because you're in the playoffs. You're playing for better seeding and easier matchups and all that jazz. But you're in the playoffs. So you take these experiences, both good and bad, and you use them when the
playoffs present themselves. Now, I'm not saying ignore the rest of the games. You need to win and win out. Okay, you need to take care of your business. But you're learning a lot about yourself. And these coaches are learning lessons that they would much rather learn right now versus learning in the actual playoffs. The Buffalo game, you figured out, guess what, we have a freaking hold in it in the middle of our defense. Our edges are soft. We
can correct that. Okay, those are correctable things. Okay, I'm glad that we've seen that. Now, Okay, are awesome. Now, Miami played one heck of a game. We had some things that we did really, really well. We have some things that we need to convert on. We know that we can go total toad with one of the best offenses in this league, if not consider the best offense in this league.
Awesome solid. Let's take that. Okay, now, let's improve upon the things that we need to prove upon.
Now we're probably about the player our most physical game outside of the forty nine ers.
Let's see how we respond to this.
Okay, can we play big boy ball and come out here and hit some guys in the mouth. You're hitting on all these checkpoints, and by the time you're getting ready to go play the playoff games, you have all these as examples and all these experiences that you can now lean on and bring into the playoffs to say, ah, let's not do that again, or ah, we've seen this before, let's turn this up one more time versus what we did a couple of weeks back. I think it's it's awesome.
It's a sucky part of the season because of the scheduled the difficulty, but it's awesome when you look at it because it's all by perspective. When you take these experiences and taking it to the playoffs, you'd be a much better off team than you would have been had you had an easier portion.
Of the season. Right now, as long as you can get out of these games healthy too.
Absolutely, I mean that's a big thing in general, as you get out of these dog fights healthy.
And on that note, I forgot to mention the news and notes Stefan Gilmour Jerry was at spot and said he'll be good to go for Sunday.
Huge, but or Saturday.
Sorry, but I wanted to bring that up because that was a huge positive to leave that game without him. Because the way he was on the ground, I think a lot of people watching were like, whoa, this could be yeah, yeah, and if you lost him, you'd be in a lot of trouvel So it sounds like they really dodge a bull on the stuff on gil Morio injury and he was able to return anyway.
Since we are comparing this Miami loss to the Philadelphia loss back in week nine, if the same result happens and follows and the Cowboys win five straight, they're in the super Bowl. So hey, there's things that you can be excited about moving forward. Cowboys Nation Big One this week on Saturday.
It's a short week.
We will be turning the page to the Detroit Lions tomorrow.
We're going to preview the Dallas defense versus a very formidable Lions offense tomorrow afternoon. We'll also have some storylines as well as we get back here on Talking Cowboys should have Nick Harris back in the fold as well for Chris Beam, Isaiah Standback, John Machoda. I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long from Talking Cowboys.
We'll see you tomorrow.
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