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This He's Talking Cowboys string live from.
The Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters at the Star in Frisco.
Second Pascot Tinson t.
Touchdown, and now your hosts Isaiah Standback, Patrick Walker, Josh Rodriguez and Kyle Yeomans.
It's so wonderful Wednesday edition of Talking Cowboys presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, Live from the Star in Frisco, Texas.
In the SWBC studios.
We've got Patrick Noc Walker, Josh Rodriguez, I'm Kyle Yeomans with Chris Beam running everything in the back as we continue into this Week three.
Already kind of crazy to say Week three, yemens moving.
We three match up with the Baltimore Ravens and the Raining MVP coming to town.
Today is of course a Wednesday, which means.
We're doing the Dallas Defensive preview and there's a lot to talk about whenever it comes to this defense. Mike zimmer System, some different elements to it, but also how the hell do you slow down Lamar Jackson, Derek Zay Flowers after what just happened to you on Sunday as well, so to look forward to today.
Lots of juicy questions on the rundown today. Yeah I like it, Yeah, I like it.
It's quite delectable. It's delicious. I have some of this and of that.
Some spicy takes on the way.
Yeah, it's gonna give fun.
Got some candy corn to pick from?
I don't Yeah.
Time, whoa, that's the close to Halloween here, so I know.
Patrick decided to throw out on Twitter yesterday that he despises everybody that ever is eating candy cornings and he he hates candy cornators and then diss Then somehow on the back half of it, my name gets tagged in it. You said that seems like something Kyle would eat. Yeah, and I mean you seem like maybe in October. I mean, and you is that because.
No, no, not absolutely not, but I like that A bar was a bar clear rim shot.
No.
I mean candy corn is gross. It's uh and anyone who chooses to devour that might as well, like I said on Twitter, might as well start eating candles and just skip the four plate candles, crayons, all of the candles.
Do you also eat black jelly beans.
Black jelly beans like the Lakers the uh, they're not my favorite.
But if it's part of a pack, sure, poverty, sir, are we going back to the booty bread and we're going back to the ends of the bread well again in that direction.
What I'm saying is, if you eat candy corn and you could be a you could be a good human being and all other facets of your life. You could be charitable, you could be philipropic, you could be you know, father of triplets, great mom, great dad, great brother, sister. You could be fantastic in the community. And for that, I thank you. You're a wonderful human being. But if you eat candy corn, you disgusted me that in that instance, Once you stop eating it and you're done, then we're good to get.
So you don't despise them.
You're disgusted by Yeah, I'm disgusted by them. And it's it's moment to moment.
So as soon as the moment that you're done eating that passes, then you no longer discussed me.
It's it's really just simple.
This won't be the last time we talked about this before Halloween, but I.
Will say for you will also say this, take your Christmas decorations down. Have some respect for Halloween, Christmas, for christ people.
People they have at Walmart, they're going to have the ways.
Of course, because you're getting to Christmas. No one's putting that up. Yeah, are they?
People? They are putting that up, sir.
That's ridiculous that that the a little it's a little soon. But I will say I don't think they're awful people. Patrick Patrick does this thing on Twitter where it's like every three or four days, like just one thing that anyone will be like, oh, that's gross. I don't like candy corn. He's like, this is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my days.
And like Patrick is prompted.
It's unprompted. There's no one that provokes. Its just something that.
Person be like, you know what, I don't really like candy corn very much. Patrick's absolutely just.
Like because I wells, I love what I like and I hate what I don't.
It's just kind of how we goes.
Hey man, more power to I love that for you.
You're all or nothing. All of that's ALLID is. That's how life has to be. You have to go all in or you pull all out, don't you do it? WHOA don't you do?
Sir?
Wild for.
Losing notes of slim to day because obviously we're coming off of an nonpractice day for the Cowboys. They will get back to practice today, being Wednesday, September eighteenth.
Yep.
Yeah, but we're looking to see what Jake Ferguson's progress looks like effective today. He's trending in the right direction. He had a quote unquote good workout on Monday, per head coach Mike McCarthy, So that's a positive. His needle is pointing in the right direction for him getting back on the field against the Ravens. Knock on wood barring
any type of setback this week. As far as Dalvin Cook, TBD owner and general manager Jerry Jones tote one O five to three the fan on Tuesday that he doesn't see it in consideration quite yet. But I will again state that that comment was made on Tuesday, and there's several days for the team to change their mind for
whatever reason, So we'll see how that goes. Outside of that, the Cowboys came out of which was one of the only good things they came out of Sunday's matchup against the Saints completely healthy, had a little bit of a scare with Zach Martin, so expect to see Zach Martin on He did not participate portion of today's practice, but it's likely because he often rests on Wednesday anyway, so they're likely treated as a veteran rest day. He did return to the game, so that's a good sign as
far as his proagnosi is going forward. I don't think it's anything major or even anything minor that he needs to deal with.
So so on Thursday, that's where we'll get our real first look because he's not gonna practice Wednesday because or today because of the that day correct and he's gonna sit down, set out regardless. That's what Mia McCarthy said Monday. But tomorrow, based off of what he does, that's gonna be your big tell.
That's gonna be telling what if he's limited.
I'm fine with him being limited because it just means that he's Yeah, it's a ramp up, he's a veteran there being precautious and there's no issue with that. Honestly, if if Zach Martin was d and P on Thursday, that still wouldn't throw me back in my chair because again, it's Zach Martin and you're resting him, and the fact that he came back to the game and played is what really I would be harping on what.
Would be the timeline of a d m P.
Would it be? Would have to take?
Okay, so Friday's d if he's If he's d m P, I'm not counting today because it's a rest date. If it's Thursday and Friday d m P, then I'm not going to hit the panic button because they do have Saturday's practice. But definitely then I'll kind of perk up and be like, oh, well, what's going on here? Because also what's going to happen on Friday is we're going to get the final injury report. So if he has a game status, uh, even if it's questionable, then it's like, okay, Well.
I wouldn't be shocked if it was questionable.
No, if it's questionable in combination with two with two deep, okay.
So if there's like a limited in there and questionable, you feel pretty sure about it.
Yeah. I just remember how.
How the Tyrone Smith injury and Arizona was handled, like like leading up to that game was I'm genuinely, genuinely curious because he was suited.
Up for that, yes he was, and then he was made inactive.
He was a made in active like hours before the game, yeah.
Ninety minutes.
Yeah, because they have to file inactives. No, that was a new kick, right, Yeah, it was a new kick.
But that was kind of out of the ordinary, right that that?
Sure, it is.
I'm genuinely curious.
It's out of the ordinary.
Yeah, that you would see him on the suit, that you would see him suit up, go through warm ups and everything, and then here comes ninety minutes and active and they're like, oh, you know what, he's not playing, Like, yeah, I don't think this is that situation. Oh yeah yeah yeah, No, no, no, just because because again Zach returned to the game.
Yeah he did.
And I'm going to keep saying that because if he had not returned snaps. Yeah, if he had not returned to the game and he was limited and or d m P this week, then it's a different conversation. But he returned today's rest and it was going to be rest anyway. Let's get to Freud Day and.
See, I'll ask you this question tomorrow as well, when we get a better look of who's working with the rehab group and who's on the bands and who's actually performing in practice. But your confidence level that Jake Ferguson this week ninety eight percent.
Wow, I am very confident.
Okay, I think I think number one Jake is going to push the play But I say that in the same aspect of this is the same Jake Ferguson that said if he can't give the if you can't play to the standard, then he's gonna sit.
Yeah.
But the fact that he was quote unquote close to playing against the Saints, that tells me that physically that knee is playable. If this was a playoff game or a must win. And I'm not going to say it's a must win in week three, but you gotta winep right, you need to win. And I think all things considered, I think another several days of not pushing that knee, I think he'll be ready for the Ravens.
I'm I guess I'm more likely than not he's going to play. I'd say about sixty percent on my end, I think you definitely need him. And part of me is word that they might push him even if he's not if this was a different team, if this wasn't a must need or must win situation, maybe you said him, I don't really know, but I feel like they're going to push regardless to have him in there.
How I would do how I would handle his status this week is I would D and P on Wednesday, d and P on Thursday, let him continue ramping up the rehab. I would limit it him on Friday, have him as limited on Friday, and then let him practice on Saturday to make that the tailtale. But that gives you a perfect blend of rehab, rest and work to make sure because he said there's no pain issue, it's
just making sure the stability is there. And it's a minor, a very minor MCL sprain, so it's not that he's working through the worst possible case scenario a severe strain or a slight tear or anything like that. So if they handle it that way, then I'd be completely fine with sticking to my ninety eight percent. I'll say this, I would be I would be shocked if Jake Ferguson's not on the field Sunday.
I would say it that.
Way higher or lower for Martin right.
Now, I think Martin plays not one hundred percent, but it's not close to a ninety nine points Yeah, ninety nine point nine to nine percent.
Yeah, whatever is Madden rating is nine.
Yeah, so I'll take ninety nine.
I can't wait for either one of those guys not to play knock on wood and then everybody's gonna come back to Patrick and be.
Like, what the heck Patrick?
That way?
Yeah, it's gonna happen either way. But I also qualified it by saying I too would be shocked, so we all shot. So yeah, but again barring any setbacks, because you have to keep that in mind as well. When a guy is rehabbing to come back, you don't obviously
you don't want it to happen. But you know, for those of us that have played sports, you can be on track to return a particular week or get back in a particular game, and then the day before, you know, you cut the wrong way, or you plant the wrong way, or you woke up and you slept the wrong way on that arm or that elbow or that knee. So I mean, anything can happen. Hence the two percent, But again I would be stunned barring a setback.
If Jake is not on the field for Sunday.
That's the key right there, because there are setbacks in the NFL. We've seen it too many times. All right, let's get into this defensive matchup for the Baltimore Ravens coming to town. Only the seventh time that these two franchises have ever met, because I mean Baltimore is a newer franchise to a certain extent.
They've of course won a couple of Super Bowls, but uh.
Five and one against the Cowboys. Cowboys have one all time.
Win against Baltimore, and that was in twenty sixteen.
I was there for the final Texas Stadium game where we lost a rough one.
Yeah, that was that was rough man. They ran all over this man.
Not an enjoyable not an enjoyable day of Texas Stadium, the very last game at Texas Stadium.
But only seven matchups, that's interesting.
One of the two to be played in Dallas, I mean they were there one and one twenty sixteen, two thousand and eight, those are the only two to be played in the Metroplex, and the Cowboys are one and one in those games.
But oh in three or what would that be?
Oh and four on the road against Baltimore. So luckily we're not going to Baltimore.
Luckily the Cowboys have them at home this week.
What was the most memorable say luck Baltimore last week?
That's true.
What was the most memorable Baltimore matchup?
Yeah?
Yeah, it's the second you remember the most? Well, man, that's Jason Garrett I his own kicker.
Ah, that's a yeah, that's a really good one.
That's the one emotion didn't Okay, why'd you have to bring that? I know, I'm sorry, but I believe we rushed for over two hundred yards in that game.
DeMarco Murray was absolutely killing him, dude. And then, uh, why did you do that? Jason Garrett Ice his own.
Kicker, Gary Candy Cornish of you?
Sorry?
You ain't sorry? You know that's sorry.
I mean you got to bring it up.
It's history, right, it is history.
I'm bringing up the box scores.
We we've also had a lot of dumps, guys.
Thirty nine or thirty one, twenty nine and you mentioned yardage. Yeah, two hundred and twenty seven rushing yards in that matchup in a loss and a lost Joe Flacco and the uh yeah, Demarcos Marco had fourteen for ninety three, Felix Jones had eighteen for ninety two, and then Philip Tanner and Lance Dunbar both had over ten yards rushing too, And yeah they ran.
All over him.
But shout shots for l Dunbar.
Lance Dunbar, Goman Green North, Texas great.
If only he could have remained healthy.
We never really got to see Lance duoneb and the Cowboys got the a loot of time post Lance Dunbar trying to recreate Lance Duebar, yep, when Lance Dumbar wasn't really peaked Lance Dumbar.
Yeah.
So this is going to be a rebound opportunity for two sides, one side or the other Dallas in the way that they lost in Week two against New Orleans. Uh. This is only the second time that the Ravens have been owing to under John Harball since he took over seventeen seasons ago.
So it's a.
It's a lot on the table for both of these sides.
Who do you feel like is under the most pressure going into this matchup on Sunday, Patrick.
I'm gonna go with the Cowboys for a couple of reasons. One, Hallball's not in the contract year no, Hallball is not on the hot seat, not as we have this conversation, not right now. Yeah, right, that's why I said right now. That could change if he goes zero and three, right, But even if he goes on three, there will still be this air of oh, he can he can get it right, he'll fix these guys. Right, it's still early,
they'll get things together. It's the Ravens. They live in the AFC playoffs and they typically get past this round and that Okay, that's what will happen. That will be the discussion around that. But if the Cowboys go one and two, dropping their first two games at home after what happened in January, and Mike McCarthy is on the hot seat because he's in a contract year, approve it year, the discourse becomes wildly different. It's not oh well, it's
still early and the Cowboys can get it together. It becomes all they're falling apart already, and they're doing it with Mike McCarthy not having a contract next year.
He's in huge trouble now and.
Dot dot the discourse will be completely different from an all and three Ravens team versus a one and two Cowboys team. Now, is that fair depends on who you ask. I honestly do think it's fair because one thing about Jim Harbaugh is tim and again he has shown you that no matter when the chips are down, he can figure out how to not only get to the playoffs, but more often than not make a run in the playoffs.
Right when it comes to the Cowboys and Mike McCarthy, McCarthy has shown you that he is one of the winning this regular season coaches for the Cowboys, And I'm confident that if they fall to one and two, they could still get back to eleven or twelve points. They'll figure it out, right because like they don't lose two games in a row that kind of stuff. And we'll
get to that with predictions later in the week. But it rightfully does apply a lot more pressure to the question of, well, if you're starting one to two number one, your odds of making the playoffs drop quite a bit. And then now, once you get into playoffs, which version.
Are we seeing.
Are we see in the version that went to Cleveland or we seeing the version that can't protect their own field. So it's just two different conversations.
I think I would argue I mean, I agree to an extent, but I feel like an oh and three start for a Ravens team that was just in the AFC Championship, I think the pressure is there for them a little bit, just a tad bit more because how many oh and three teams make it to the playoffs. And you're coming off AFC Championship with as much as they did to build on the offense. Coming into this season, you're bringing Derrick Henry, you try to pep up the
offensive line. Part of me is like if you go oh and three after basically.
Trying to bring in weapons on every side of the ball and.
Go oh and three?
Man like that to me is is uh. It does feel earth shattering in a way. If you're a Ravens fan, it's like, what are we doing?
So here's my question that I'll pose to you. And here's what also drives what I'm saying. This is how I know that discourse will be different. Lamar Jackson Week one, Okay, all that's being talked about from that game is the toe on the line. I literally read and reposted articles from national coverage that said, and this is verbatim, Lamar Jackson left it all on the field, Lamar Jackson bawled out and couldn't get bailed out by the Toes. The
level of forgiveness that's awarded to Lamar Jackson fair. The last one is arguable, it's not arguable. It's arguable that he should have gotten it over deck, which is always even Christian McCaffrey.
But Kyle's argument, if it didn't happen, if it didn't happen, didn't happen.
Which is fair.
Do you think the national coverage would be the same for an oh and three Ravens team as it would be for one and two Cowboys team?
Absolutely not.
That's general saying, absolutely regardless, no matter what happens, Even if we do happen to win this game against the Ravens, they're gonna be like, oh, well, if.
Team you know, because forgiveness and grace is given to teams that are not wearing this just to.
Agree, That's what I'm saying.
So agree nationally speaking, one and two having a win on that on that record is because but you're still some five hundred. It's going to be worse to national coverage than oh and three from a John Hobba and Lamar Jackson led Ravens team because they're going to get all this grace and it's it's not fair, but it's going to happen.
I'll give that to you.
But internally, if we're talking pressure, internally, it to me, it's on the Ravens if they go and three.
Just to sprinklet national coverage.
And to sprinkle this into a little conversation, six teams since nineteen seventy nine have made the playoffs after an oh to three start. Six six teams out of one hundred and fifty eight. This is going into last year, so this is this number is a little bit different. Of the one fifty eight teams that started oh and three between nineteen ninety and twenty twenty two, four managed to make it into the postseason, so not great odds
in order to make it happen. The only team to do it since or I don't think any team's done it since they moved to a seventeen game season. The latest one to do it was in twenty eighteen the Houston Texans started owing three.
Deshaun Watson and company.
They got themselves back.
Right and we're able to push it into the postseason for Houston.
But speaking of Deshaun Watson.
Well really quickly.
So to qualify this correctly, we're talking internal pressure versus external.
Pres We're talking pressure in general.
But because external pressure both, it would more be all the Cowboys internal pressure, it would be more on the Ravens.
Yeah, let me put it.
So what I'm saying, Yeah, I wanted to Yeah, there you go clarify that for fans.
I do want to take a break here, speaking of Deshaun Watson.
Dallas did a really good job of keeping a mobile quarterback contained in week one. Now it takes the next step, takes a significant step forward with Lamar Jackson and company going into week three.
What does Dallas.
Need to do defensively to slow down the Ravens and Lamar Jackson right after this with more talking cowboys.
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Patrick on Twitter after the show. That was the bettest I've ever.
Had life, right, we're all, Oh man, glad you're with us here on Talking Cowboys. I want to kind of tease a part of the show Friday. We've of course got say it with your say it with your chest Friday, every single Friday on the show if you haven't been a part of it yet. High octane final preview going into the weekend. We've got a little extra knowledge that
we're going to share coming up this week. And there's been a lot of talk this week from Mike Zimmer, from fans, from experts around the league talking about base packages and sub packages and Mike Zimmers defense, and they very significant. We talked in training camp about pre snap post snap, well all of that is based around the base package and the sub packages that are used by Mike Zimmer, So what does that mean, what does that
look like? And how does that affect certain players? Like I know Patrick, you want to talk deeply on Friday about de Barbie and.
Overshown and how it effects just Zimmer's trends as far as bass versus sub and actually, and we'll get into it more on Friday, what is base in the NFL nowadays? Because that's not what it used to be when we were watching football decades ago for these moss basis, So what's modern bas versus modern stub? So we're going to get into that especially. It'll be fun to have Isaiah way in on that as well.
What you're thinking about talking about it today since it's a defensive preview day, but we want to get Isaiah's input into it. We want to have everybody really gonna dive in film examples.
Yeah, We're we're gonna try and bring the heat on Friday.
With for sure.
And if my whole thing like outside looking in, if Demarvin Overstone isn't in your base, fix the base, you.
Know what I mean, Slap it the base a little bit, you know what I mean?
There were a couple times and hard I agree with you for the most part. There were a couple times in this game, and this will kind of transition nicely into our matchup with the Baltimore Ravens and the defensive preview here, but there were times Demarvin overshown struggled against big men, against these tight ends, against these tackles and getting off blocks, being in the right place, right time.
His speed is undeniable. His readability when he can find a whole shooting out of a cannon, we talked about that already, and what he did in Week one against the Sean Watson and company. All of that is great, but he still can get caught up in the wash. And I think that's part of him being a de facto rookie. He's played two games in his NFL career and I mean, what it was eighteen snaps, Yeah, on Sunday.
So he's so new to this that there's going to be a learning curve, and I think we saw a little bit of that against New Orleans.
Yeah, it's reps, neat reps, reps, reps, reps, which goes to what Josh is saying, change your base, right, Yeah, Yeah, get him more involved because he's put he's put on some added weight to be able to take on some of these large blockers and disengage. But like we're talking about, he's a de facto rookie and he's going to have to learn how to do.
That at the NFL level.
And also going back to his table with Texas, that that wasn't necessarily his bag.
It was more of a coverage bag right now. He was a safety there.
He was a safety that transition, which is why I labeled him as the best covered linebacker in that particular draft. So yeah, he has he can cover, no doubt, he can spy, no doubt. But when you're talking about taking on some of these bigger guys and at the NFL level, that's a new facet of the game for him, and he has the size to do it, but he doesn't have the reps. So the only way to fix that is to put him more in base.
Well, I guess my question, and this will be more so for Friday. It's like you have Maris le who is not a de fact a rookie, is a rookie and it is starting in the base package over tomorrow.
And that's because of what the actual base is nowadays for the Cowboys, versus what the sub pack whiches are, which is why you got to tune in on were going to get into the science baby.
And not to mention the Cowboys ran Nickel on eighty nine percent of plays in Week one against Cleveland Browns. They didn't necessarily do that in Week two against New Orleans and.
There's a reason behind that.
But speaking to what New Orleans or excuse me, to what Baltimore does here, Lamar Jackson mobile, dynamic quarterback.
Not always going to kill you with his arm, but he certainly can.
If he has to, not bad for running back.
For a running back, he's much more than a running back now. I think he's proven that one. But here he's a legitimate threat in MVP.
Level caliber play all the way through his career and he's won it twice, no doubt. The players outside of that are what kind of give me a little bit more hope this week, because we talked about the weaponry from New Orleans, Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed and Alvin Kamara and all these different weapons they have. Derrick Henry, big name on the back half of his career, Zay Flowers probably going.
To be a superstar, in this league.
If he continues that, the trajectory is but you're catching him in year number two. Right, is this weaponry from Baltimore just as talented or more talented or where do they lie compared to New Orleans?
It's different talent, I mean say, of course, is the speed. You know, he's the Rashid Shihi, you know in terms of the speed that you have, but totally different weaponry in the tight.
Ends because you have to keep two guys.
You got to Mark Andrews's he's on the marquee, right, everyone drafted him in fantasy, but you also have you also have Isaiah Likely.
Who everybody picked up in week going into Week two of Fantasy.
Granted, you know he it was almost a game winning touchdown in Week one.
Versus the Chiefs.
But Isaiah Likely is basically a big bodied wide receiver. He's an athletic azelle, and he's able to find gaps in especially his own defense, where he is just always open question mark, He's just always open, d And if it's open, you're like, yeah, likely he's going to be likely be open. Something about that dude is fascinating to watch. It's fascinating to watch his game and see how basically
he moves in space. To me, the weaponry is different compared to New Orleans and the running attack, I feel like is where we're going to have a little more success. What about you, Patrick, as far as weapons.
Go, I think the like you said, the weapons are different, and I think this works more in favor of the Cowboys because the reason, one of the reasons, because there were several, one of the reasons they struggled against the Saints is not only do you have the speed of Shahi, but Chris Olave isn't exactly running in molasses, right, He has some speed to take the top off as well. So you have to protect against two guys who can
stretch the field. And then you also have the fact that Alvi Kameric can play well, not just play in space, but he excels in space, getting out on the edge with those runs, getting out in you know, screens and bubbles and quick dump offs in the middle of the field. When you're allowing free releases on guys like Michael Parsons eg. The fifty seven yard touchdown tossed to Kamara from from Derek Carr. But when you flip it and you look
at the Ravens, you only have one speedster to account for. Okay, likely he's he's possession based, Andrews he's possession based. They're not George Kittle as far as you know, athletic tight ends who can also make plays in space. They're not big on yak right, and that works in the Cowboys favor. When you look at Derrick Henry, Derrick Henry, like you said, Kyle, he's on the back end of his career.
Can he still impact the game?
Absolutely, look, but not on the edges, not on the outside, not as a bubble screen threat, not as a quick dump in the middle of the field to for fifty
seven yard touchdown. Absolutely not, all things considered. The weapon the talent is there, the weaponry is there, but it more favors what the Cowboys like to do defensively, as far as shrinking the field, playing more closely to a phone booth than an airport tarmac, right, And that's going to allow them to play a little bit more downhill, get more physical with the Ravens, and possibly you know, shorten the windows to get more takeaways. And then the
X factor is the more obvious one. Lamar Jackson on the ground is more dangerous than Derek Carr. Everyone will be on the ground, but Derek Carr is far more dangerous in the air than Lamar Jackson could ever dream of being. So how do you stop Lamar Jackson? That's what the Cowboys need to figure out.
You talked about the yards after the catch, which I think is really interesting. Whenever you take a look at those three weapons Andrews, Likely and Jay Flowers, and I'm looking at Likely's route chart and what he has on next gen stats. He only has two grabs this year beyond ten yards downfield. They don't throw it downfield to Isaiah Likely. Same thing for Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews has two of more than ten yards downfield after the catch.
Is where Likely has been dangerous and Andrews has been not It has not been dangerous because one of those two receptions for Isaiah Likely was the big touchdown early where he went down the right sideline until it was.
Also horrible angles, terrible.
Angles from Kansas City. It was not a great play, but he's still it still still happened. It happened, But then you've got on the opposite side of it.
Whenever you've got Mark Andrews, his yards after the catch have been less than five yards on almost every single one of his six receptions. There's one one reception I'm looking at here that's six yards.
That's it.
Well, their yards after the catch are not there for Mark Andrews, but it is there for Isaiah likea likely, that's what you go. That's going to what you talked about of these are different weapons.
Different weapons, And like I said, he's more of a big bodied wide receiver with how athletic he is and how he's able to get down the field and his route running too.
Isaiah likely.
When it comes to Lamar, I will say blitzen.
Attack, attacks and jacket attack.
And I was having that thought coming into this this week in today's episode, and then I started kind of looking through numbers to see if the numbers supported with the eyes were telling me, and they actually do. Here's just one example of the science. Lamar Jackson has been blitched on. Let's see, out of all the times he's been blitched he's He's only completed one hundred yards of passing, no touchdowns.
He's twentieth inst.
Passerrating seventy five point six.
Is that this year?
This year?
This year, seventy five point blitz and his completion percentage above expectation when he's blitzed is negative nineteen percent. Can't he can't take it. He gets him off his spot and it forces him to go into panic mode. And what does Lamar Jackson do when he panics?
He runs.
That's the second that's what you really need to defend again over exactly, that's what you really need to defend against, because that is what's going to keep your defense on the field if you can't stop him and avoid third down conversions. But if if you send that extra one or two guys back there, he's going to struggle because
he can't get through his reads. And we joked about it, but yeah, he's much better throwing at this point in his career than he was in the beginning, and he can make the right one when it matters most but over the course of four quarters, more often than not, you can rattle him by sitting the extra guy.
So comparing it to a week one, there's the science baby, where comparing it to week one, I mean you look at mobility. A quarterback may be comfortable with his legs more so than his arms. Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, but Lamar Jackson's a step up, significant step up. Running back Jerome Forbes got some speed, got some power, but Derek Henry's all power, all muscle.
Definitely a step up there.
Wide receiver of Mary Cooper's Jay Flowers, I would argue are Mary Cooper's probably a step up at receiver and more of a technician of a route runner. Jay Flowers is different though He's got a little bit speed to him. And then you've got the tight end position. We just talked about the two tight ends Isaiah likely Mark Andrews. They have their own specific skill set and you had with Cleveland in Week one with David and Joku before
he was injured later in the game. So all of that to be said, is it gonna be a similar game plan from Dallas in terms of defensive looks in what they did employee in week one, how they slowed down Cleveland to try and I mean it's a step up. Like I said, this offense is better than Cleveland's, at least based off of what we've seen here in twenty four so far. But is it gonna be a different look or a similar look game plan wise?
I certainly hope.
So that's the same.
I certainly hope it's.
It's it's a similar look to the Cleveland game versus the Saints game.
Right.
For me, the biggest takeaway from watching the Ravens is that you were able to attack their offensive line. Yeah, and more more often than not. Danielle Fallow Fallele, Okay, he's had a lot of trouble last week with stunts and misdirection and Max Crosby.
Who wouldn't have issues with.
Max Crosby, right, Mac Crosby.
But that's where you bring Micah in to disrupt this dude.
He's not getting off the snap quickly and he's not getting his arms up quickly.
He is getting like lost.
Ten whatever is so you gotta you can get around him.
Right, dude is getting mauled. He's getting mauled.
Granted, he has help on the right tackle position with Roger Rosengarden, who is a dog who came in as a backup. He was a swing tackle last week and ate up Max Crosby for a big portion, which is why they took him away. And in that final drive, Max Crosby was just absolutely tearing up Fallele.
That to me is is that's your key right there?
Man.
You send Micah up the middle, which we're used to seeing now right, you see him kind of over center. You see him over the guards as opposed to the outsides. To me, that's where you attack. Because they have the six lowest pressure percentage in the NFL currently. The offensive line does a twenty five percent, the seventh fewest sacks currently, but two of those came on that final drive against Cross being to Max Crosby, the absolutely wrecked um man.
To me, that was the.
Quote unquote blueprint to beating the Ravens, especially in the final minutes of that game.
That's kind of where.
It's like, oh, this is what she should have been doing this whole time, is attacking this dude right here.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And one.
Thing the Saints, the Saints were able to do was take advantage of how effective the play action became because of the success of Alvin Kamara. But now you have a Ravens team coming in that doesn't like to use play action. Now, the reason they don't like to use play action is because number one, Derrick Henry hasn't been Derrick Henry hasn't been the king right still impact games absolutely, but not effective enough for you to operate off of the play action. Also, they feel like all breaks down
on Lamar can just run it themselves. But the fact that they only run play action less than seventeen percent of the time through the first two games. When you send in that blitz, so when you send a Mica lineing him up at zero tech, one tech, whatever the case may be, there will be time to get to him because it's more of a true drop back than it is a play action. And you have to wonder if that ball is if it's gonna be handed off for not. But the question becomes, are you let me
let me first say the answer spy him? Yes, Okay, I'm talking good old fashioned James Bond espionage.
With the situations like all of it. I'm talking about.
Just there should be like this montage before the game where there's the double O seven.
Or over shown. That's what I want now, Mike Zimbra made.
I'm more of a tenant guy. So like even if even if Overstone's going on the reverse going behind.
Him and.
Well play my point being whether it's overshown or Micah. And the reason I say Micah, and this is what leads to the question Mike Zimmer, when asked if Overshown would spy Lamar Jackson like he spied Deshaun Watson, Zimmer said, you know, maybe or maybe we'll spy him with Michael Parsons because that guy's kind of fast as well.
Fair enough, bro, what a match up that that would be.
But I don't I don't know that it's necessary, probably because Micah forty faster.
But ten yards split literally the.
Same one point five nine seconds pre draft, literally one point five nine seconds pre draft for de Marvion Overshown, one point five nine seconds pre draft for Michael Parsons. Their ten yard split is exactly the same, so the burst is the same. So all you need him over shown to do is keep keep Lamar Jackson from burning the corner and then getting out into true space where he damaged the second.
And you do that by setting Micah up the middle there.
And just over shown the spine on the here we are, here, we are, this is We're gonna win. It doesn't truly work, It doesn't truly work in the inverse right because you you we just talked about Marveon having trouble right now, disengaging blocks on larger guys. Micah obviously ships blocks like water on a duck's back. Okay, so you can't say, well, spy with Micah and then put to Marvy On and though you can't, right, so I'm right here with Josh.
The solution is is that you threaten the interior with Michael Parsons flushing Lamar out where you have a QB spye to Marvey On Overshan Waiting, who has the exact same burst.
If this happens just one time on Sunday, one time, I guarantee I'm not even gonna be in the press box and I know exactly what's gonna happen. Patrick on the front row is gonna turn around and look at it, Josh a couple seats down in the second row.
And just point up to him. Josh is gonna be like, I got it done.
I like it, guys, I do.
I like the idea. I like the overall matchup.
I think there's a shot here for Dallas to rebound in a big way defensively.
Yes.
Is it gonna be easy? Absolutely not? Because Lamar Jackson is a threat. Say Flowers is a threat. We talked about like Lee and Andrews and Henry. I mean they have players on every level. But when we come back, I want to talk about the most underrated and overrated player that we've seen the Cowboys defense so far this year with more talking Cowboys.
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Welcome back into Dear Doctor, the show where I answer life's questions with an ice cold can of Doctor Pepper. Sheila, let's hear from my next caller, Would.
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To cry out?
Okay, this one's easy. I say, give her a delicious Doctor Pepper. Nothing says thanks good better than one of a kind soda. Yes, any Doctor Pepper flavor will do. Now, just a reminder that I don't need to be a real doctor to know that Doctor Pepper is the one you deserve.
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Back here on Talking Cowboys, the official or officially sponsored by Black Rifle Coffee Company, live from the Star in Frisco, Texas. Patrick no Cy Walker, We've got Chock.
Freddie guess wow, I'm Kyle Yeomens. We've got Chris Beam in the back.
This segment is brought to you by in Visiline, the official smile of the Dallas Cowboys.
All smiles. Here on this.
Wednesday, we will preview the Cowboys offensive matchup. Tomorrow, Isaiah will be back from his Good Morning Football venture.
He will give us.
Some QB vision diving deep into the film for the Cowboys matchup with the Ravens defense, which has some studs on that side of the.
Football as well.
Quickly, before we say goodbye, I want to talk about most underrated player we've seen on the Cowboys defense.
So far this year.
Most underrated so far this year. You know what I said, I'm gonna stick with DeMarcus Lawrence. I think even after the game that he had in Week one, there are still and this is a testament to not a testament, but this is evidenced by conversations I've been having on social media. There's still this wildly underrating of what DeMarcus Lawrence brings to the table for the Cowboys, and it is it is mind numbing how how people aren't really
paying attention to what he does on the field. And then, of course you look at Week two and the majority of the defense kind of with the bed. But then you look at that fifty seven yard touchdown from Alvin Kamara, and who was that almost chasing him?
Who was still yeah, who was still.
Paying right even when things were getting well out of hand. It was DeMarcus Lawrence showing the effort, putting it on film, holding guys accountable. So, for me, the most underrated remains DeMarcus Lawrence.
I like it for me, Oh so, Dickie Zoo, I don't think. I don't think enough praise has sent his way. Granted, you look at Pro Football Focus and his rating is in the dirt right now because of that Saints game.
Unwarranted in my opinion.
I think, granted, you know that they got out physical to excuse me, in the last game, but since he got to the Cowboys, and I'm also sort of encompassing last year too.
I know we're talking sport this year, but man, unsung hero for me on the defense. Oh so, diggi Zua.
I was trying to look up what his PFF grade is. My internet's running a little slow, but I was in the thirties after last year.
It really it was.
It was very not he he was washed off the ball a couple different times, but he was also probably the most effective defensive tackle in the entire game. So I mean, in a game like that, I get it because everybody else is having a bad game. Yeah, yeah, that's that's a tough one to be different. I agree with both of you guys. I think de Lall probably
would have been my choice as well. I'm gonna go with Jordan Lewis because even even whenever you're looking at the struggles that Kaitlin Carson had in Week two, the struggles that even Trayvon Diggs had from a physical standpoint in week two. You never really saw Jordan Lewis on film getting beat a ton. I think maybe one time in that game he got beat for one of those first down receptions, but consistently physicality, coverage wise.
Right place, right time.
He does everything right and he's becoming a weapon for that secondary, and.
It's hard to stop the run when run blockers are in the secondary.
Yeah, absolutely, Malling you you know what I mean.
Like, it's he's the best tackler that you have in your secondary, one of the best tacklers you have on your defensive roster, locker room leader. He can take the ball away both in the air and force fumbles. As Christian McCaffrey. Jordan Lewis, he gets it done. And every year there's this faction of fans that are trying to replace Jordan Lewis, and every year he shows them why he is irreplaceable until further notice.
I might have been in that camp in twenty twenty, right up until Post's injury, the first injury that he had, I might have been in that camp.
There's no way I'm ever getting in that camp. Like, he is a top notch.
Player for that secondary, and he's continued to get better and better as the years have gone on. So uh, the point of this segment of underrated players is all three of those guys are gonna have to step up and take their game to the next level. Nice if Mike Zimmer is going to have success in Week three, that's exactly what we're looking at going into this Week three matchup.
Have in mind, who's that Joseph.
Yeah, he doesn't fall into the underrated category, but he does fall into the category of I wouldn't say overrated simply because he's only two games in and he was he missed all the training camp because he's a mercenary, so he needs to ramp up. But I say that to say there is expectation that he will do far better than what we saw him do against the Saints as far as getting pushed back and getting pushed off
the line. He's here for the opposite of that, right Phillips. Now, Jordan Phillips did have a very solid Week one, but lin between Week one and Week two. Keeping in mind again, he's ramping up. The Cowboys need more from him, and they need more from him a saptually, and that begins Sunday against the Ravens. So definitely not gonna say the guy's overrated. Good word, yeah, because I believe he can
still impact the game positively for the Cowboys. They just need that ramp up to be done like right now, A a saptually. I like it, new work, go with it, yep, look it up all right?
That does it for us.
Here on talking Cowboys for Chris being in the back, Josh Rodriguez, Patrick, no se Walker. I'm Kyle Yellman saying so long, We'll see you tomorrow with the Cowboys offensive preview against the Ravens.
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