Talkin' Cowboys: Step Back Or Forward?

You've come to the right place because us here at Talking Cowboys, we like to wait until Friday to really say it with our chest and to really dig in. And sure we're angry at times, and we're upset at times, and of course we're disappointed. But today we're gonna say it with our chest. It's a rare edition of say

It with your Chess Monday here on Talking Cowboys. Because the Dallas Cowboys fall in an NFC Least Battle twenty three to nine and fall to two and six on the twenty twenty season last night in Philadelphia at the Lincoln Financial Field, and man, we've got a we got a lot to talk about. Whenever it comes to the offensive side of the football. Defense played better, but man, we've got a lot to hit there as well. Isaiah standback our residence. Super Bowl champion Cowboys insider Rob Phillips,

the sultry voice of heck Ma Harrison. I'm Kyle Yeomans again. Thank you smooth jazz with heck Ma Harrison. Thanks again for joining us. And let's go ahead and get into this. Let's dissect what happened last night. Bend Nucci starting at quarterback the seventh round, rookie out of James Madison, and it did not go well for Denucci, the entire offense and Rob. Things just they were pretty out of whack from the get go on that side of the football.

I don't know, and we might have lost Rob. Go for it, Hackma, Why does Rob do this to me on a sandwich in chest Monday. I know what Rob was gonna say. The Nucci looked like a rookie cat. We retired the name Gucci the Nucci from now on. Man, let let let a game. Um, oh my god, man, it's it's so it's so many things to unpack today, guys, But when it comes down to how we performed, we loot that rookie quarterback just couldn't get this office going at all. And we were looking for the running game.

I like the wildcat as the new wrinkle to try and get Zeke involved, but it just seemed like none of it worked in. When we got down into the goal line, we just couldn't punch it in. And all of those are byproduct of having a rookie, having a rookie quarterback. We did the best we could. I felt like defensively we started off pretty bad. The running game for the for the Eagles were just gashing us. But then we started to shore up some of those days.

And if we want to look for any bright spot, I guess we'll we'll start talking about trey Von Diggs. But even with Diggs, it was a it was a good and that was also a bad. But my god, man, where do you go from here? And with what you have on the horizon? Yeah, we're gonna be talking about a lot of other things other than what we're going this season as Zaiah, what are your thoughts after last

night's loss? Terrible? Terrible and and Charles Brownie terrible? Um, it was awful, man, It was hard to watch Kyle, you and I watched it together. There's really not a whole lot to say about this, and I wish we could just look forward to the next week, but I don't think we really want to do that right now. Um, it was bad, man. I know a lot it's gonna be placed on Denucci, and yes, he had a rough night.

But I think a lot of this, and I mentioned this last night on the post game show, a lot of this falls on the shoulders of Keller Moore too. Keller Moore did not call a good game. He did not set this offense up for success. Um. He whenever there was momentum on the on our side of the ball, you know, he killed the momentum with terrible play. Call the reverse. Oh, let's there's there was There was three or four I know account three for sure, reverse slash

reverse passes that were in the mix. Um, I think we had three different quarterbacks play last night. It was just it was a lot, man, it was a lot. I think I think Moore was overwhelmed with the situation. He didn't handle that accordingly. De Nucci did not handle his his opportunity well. Um, whenever he did have receivers opened the ball, the placement was It was awful. Uh. Obviously he made some really bad decisions as well as

terms of whether to throw the ball away or not. Um, he got lucky on some players that should have been picked off. He did not secure the ball. It was just it was all around bad, you know what, Like I said, But the bright spot was the defense did play a little bit better and they were hustling. And one thing I could I can't say about this entire

team is the energy was better. And I don't know if it has I don't have to know if that has anything to do with the fact that the guys that they let go of, but I feel like it does. I know, when there's veterans in front of you, you tend to kind of hold back. You don't want to be yourself because those guys kind of setting the president of what was our team is. But with those guys gone, you saw the energy, you saw the fire I'm in desire, but it just didn't it didn't manifest anything. Rob, are

you back, I'm there. I'm sorry, fellas. Okay, we're more basically just giving her Yeah, good morning, welcome, welcome to the show. I'm glad. I wish we were still back in person for this this week. But since you are back, yeah, give us your thoughts on this loss and kind of the generalities that you took from it last night. Well, I caught part of what Isaiah said, and you know, offensively it the situation was what it was. You know,

we talked about it going into the game. Bin to Nucci, clearly he wasn't ready for this opportunity, and that's really no fault of his own. H And I don't even think it's really the cowboy's fault because look, you know, no preseason game reps at all, even on top of just one week to prepare. H he. You know, they changed some things up on him that Philly did in terms of they didn't blitz as much, they kind of played more coverage, and I think that threw him off.

And you know, Isaiah referenced the game plan in terms of some of the trick plays. You know, de Nucci's situation manifested itself with that game plan, with trying to do some some weird things to throw Philly off and and and make things happen. And really it did, you know, other than CD's nineteen yard reverse run on the second play from scrimmage. They didn't really get much out of those plays, and you know reference I think Isaiah you referenced the one in the third quarter where you know

you're pounding the rock. It's I think it's seven straight runs and they're actually getting something going on the ground, and then you have a somebody missed a block on Fletcher Cox. I believe it was ten yard loss for Cedric Wilson, and that was you know, that was your opportunity to get in the game. And I know fans are gonna are upset. I'm sure you know it's a wasted effort by the defense by far their best performance

of the season. But I do think going into this game, the situation was what it was, you know, with ben da Nucci trying to make this thing happen, they were going to be challenged all night. And ultimately the scorer isn't really that surprising to me, and we kind of talked about it all week. Was we knew the situation going in with the quarterback and with Vinda Nucci and

the fact that the numbers are stacked against him. I believe Cowboys rookies starters at quarterback were three and ten now three and eleven backup since two thousand and seven were seven and twenty two as a starter, so overall the numbers were stacked against them no matter what. But we also said in order to kind of combat that got up the play calling, and I felt like they tried to get creative with play calling, but it wasn't

necessarily anything that worked. It didn't work, and then you kept going back to it and it didn't work again, and he went back to it again and it was the same result. It was a little frustrating to see the thought process going on there, but not going away and making adjustments mid game. That's something that I really didn't like, Isaiah. Whenever it came to the play calling that was out on the field, it didn't help your guys out of a whole lot. No, And you're absolutely correct.

And the thing that you want to do whenever you have a young quarterback or somebody that's just trying to simply get established with some confidence, is you want to give him a limited amount of plays, right, And we always heard about how everybody needs how they needed to dumb down the playbook for him. I feel like you could have gave him now the typical play call sheet. Let me just help everybody understand it. She's usually about two hundred to three hundred calls on a play on

a play call sheet. So when you got to see the coach over there with his little with his little whatever, little classic piece of paper. Um, I can I think of the name, it was laminated lamind thank you very much, laminated paper. Um, that's about it's about. There's usually about three hundred calls on that, depending on the coach, right, depending on how how how how deep they want to

go into their their offense. But I feel like they should have probably dumbed that down to probably around seventy five plays for him, um and taking those plays right and then totally just change the formation, change the personnel. It's something we used to do in New England all the time. Are we had a very extensive offense, but a lot of the times we're going to going to a game a week and we would simply just take about twenty plays and we would just run those same

plays over and over and over again. It but we were running from different personnel and running from different formations. We run from different motions to get to get to those positions. That way, he's not overthinking things. But it looks totally different to the defense. So there's a way of going about it. And I think that I think more.

I think this is a test for him. As much as this was a rookie stepping up into this position, I think, you know, Kellen Moore, this was his his rookie showing in terms of how to handle a handle on somebody in this situation. Yeah, Isaiah, And it looked like Swartz. It looked like Schwartz had an easy game plan for the Nuccie that confused him. That came at points in the game where you could tell the rookie

was struggling. He was seeing fifteen dbs back there, he couldn't find any spaces at times where the offensive line actually gave him the time to throw. But you know, when you're going into a game like this, and we talked about the pitch count and saying that, look, man, if we got to the point where the Nucci through the ball forty times, we were in trouble. Look at the statue through the ball ball forty times. But the worst quarterback in this game wasn't being the Nucci, it

was the other guy. So I mean, if you want to just place your hat on anything. We didn't do ourselves any favors in this game to win it. But Philly is terrible as well, all right, and so they got by and it wasn't we couldn't overcome some of

our mistakes for our rookie quarterback. But look, man, Philly isn't going anywhere fast and based off of their schedule and what they have coming up, if we can just get some things correct, and I can't even believe I'm saying this, Yeah, well we gotta get Well that's the thing, man. The Philly is terrible. They're bad, all right, and you could tell. But the way that wins is holding on to the ball. Look, man, it's not gonna get any better. And if we just had a little bit at quarterback,

that was a game for our for us to win. Yeah, I mean, WinCE Wentz made three more throws than the Nucci did, as as much as the Nucci struggled in that game. I mean he had the touchdown pass and a couple of the throws and other than that, you know, I know it was it looked windy, looked really windy, but there was he was just throwing balls up for grabs. You know, the accuracy for Wentz has been a problem

all year long. But um, you know, to piggyback on what Isaiah said, I mean with the Nucci, I think the play calling could have helped. I think they should have stuck to the run, especially in the second half when it was working. But I just feel like he just was in a He was over matched in this game. I mean early on you could tell he was. He held the ball too long on that first bumble, he

was processing things too slowly. The best thing they had going offensively was those little short flares, those short screens to the top receivers and let those guys work, let them, let them work in space. But anytime they tried to go down the field, I mean, it was an adventure because you thought it was gonna get picked off. Yeah,

it was something that made you nervous. He gave you the bubble guts whenever you saw him step back and actually try and throw one, because you didn't know how long it was going to take until that pocket collapsed, and then you had to see his escapability. I thought Ben Nannucci did a nice job running the ball last night, and I think he used his legs on a couple

of occasions. Now, whenever it comes to the offensive line, and we talked about protecting him, what did we think about the offensive line, because going back and watching it, I thought Tyler Beatis maybe had his best game at center. Zach Martin absolutely helped. But man, we've got a problem on the right side of that offensive line. HECMA, yes, we do, and we gotta figure out what Terace Steele has on the coaching staff for him to continue to

line up at right tackle. This first half was horrible. I think he got better as the game went alone. They got him some help, but man, on that offensive line, he is the one guy that you can point to this. Look, we have some leakage on that side, but you're right, Kyle, be honest. They showed it in also having Zach Martin back as well did a really good These guys did

a really good job up front. The protection was there in some circumstances, but you have to look at the situation and Benny Knuti was just holding onto the ball way too long, and on that one play where he had Fletcher Cox coming right at him, I'm just screaming at my television. Throw the ball being and It's a couple of times where it's like, man, you have to recognize ninety one coming at you, and it's just then the recognition wasn't there. You couldn't recognize ninety one coming

at you. He obviously, he obviously could not recognize ninety one coming up. Wasn't Delaware's defensive end coming back down at you. That wasn't that. That wasn't Stony Brooks coming at you. There, that was flex your cox, Hey, brow the ball, Brow the ball, get it out of your hands. I wanted to ask Isaiah this because he was in studio last night. I didn't get a chance to talk to him. But from a quarterback's perspective, was he just was he just seeing like Heck said just fifteen guys.

Was it was everything just going too fast for him? Because it seemed like maybe it's settled down a little bit in the second half, but early on it was just like I he just there's too much going on for him. I think, yeah, No, I think I mentioned this to Kyle and Nate and studio. In the first quarter when Ben don you dropped back, I think I think it was like a third down play and you could see how he wasn't looking downfield. His eyes were

not downfield. He was concerned with the rush. And at the time that he was doing that, there was only four guys rushing. Well, I'm sorry, Ben, those are gonna be the same four guys coming at you all game long, changing, you know. But I've been there before when I was when I was a young quarterback in college. You know, you get caught up looking at the rush. You're so concerned about about getting sacked that you that you now can't focus on doing your job, which is making sure

that you deliver the ball down the field. Um. And you know in throwing downs and it's a lot, man, it takes a lot of reputation. Um, it's gonna take him a while, and we don't have a while. Unfortunately, hopefully any dog can get back and get some form of stability going forward. Um, but he's young, man. It sucks. It's that's a sucky situation. I think he I think

he failed in his in his h in his rookie start. Um. I think you know, like I said, Kelling Moore, he was a rookie in this in this particular situation, and he failed as well. Hey, what about the side on right, that was terrible. Man. I don't he came pulling that out too on the sideline. That's a question, Kyle. We were in training camp and he didn't get a ton of reps. But I know he kind of throws like that. But the one by the sideline, like I don't remember

him doing the white earb things. Oh where it's like a complete side arm. That was new because I feel like whenever he pulled it out, the first thought I had, and you can I can guarantee Nate and Isaiah remember me doing this. I jumped up, I had some ribs on my plate and I put it on the ground and I said, listen here, that was a baseball throw. And I mean he was basically like a like a

short stop coming around and throwing sidearm off balance. It's like, that's hard to do one, but two, that's such a low accurately play. I don't know what he's thinking. They're trying to make something. Everybody, everybody on this everybody on the sideline just watched the ball go by, like what was that? They said, Yeah, I love that brand. But

you just that's what you do. Man. When you're in that situation, you're trying to You're trying to find something, right, You're trying to find something positive, man, because he knows I can't sit in the pocket. Whenever I do get out of the pocket, guys are covered up, so I don't want to run out of bounds, right, because that's kind of weak of me to run out of bounds. So they me trying to force something without getting an interception. So I has to be a low percentage throw because

I don't want it to be a high percentage interception ratio. Right. It's just it's just bad, man. It's just it was all around not good. And we talked about it. I think I mentioned it on the show on Friday. Out there from Tostitos, it was about talking about how my biggest fear is about him holding the ball, right, It was about him holding the ball because he's gonna have to wait. In his mind, he needs to wait till these guys are all the way open, because it's in

his head. Don't throw a pick. Don't throw a pick. Well, you didn't throw a pick, so that's good. But you just happened to fumbel the ball because these guys are coming after you. You're holding onto it too long. So that was one of my biggest concerns in and we saw that come back to bite him. I feel for him because I asked him after the game about the speed of the game, and he said that all week in his mind, he kept tell himself, I gotta play fast.

I gotta play fast. I gotta play fast. But I don't know, you know, I don't know if you means yeah. I don't know if you feel the speed of it until you're actually out there waiting with live reps. Well, and I'm glad you guys brought up the side arm conversation because there were a couple of drops in there as well from good throws from Ben Denucci, but it were dropped at a certain point. I kind of want Isaiah to go through that here in just a little bit.

But when we come back, you're on Talking Cowboys. We're gonna step aside, but don't go anywhere, because when we come back, that would Andy Dalton have won last night's game. I asked that question and we get an explanation on some of those wide receiver drops. When we return on the other side of the break, you're on Talking Cowboys. Since eighteen sixty five, Stetson hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to

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dot com, selor seemore do More. We're backing the tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor pepper and cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor bab cream soda. Is he a new I'm bonus music to my years? Okay, doctor music to my ears and mouth? New Doctor pepper and Cream Soda. Delis dock to Talking Cowboys. Second segment here of Talking Cowboys from the s WBC

Mortgage Studios. Glad you're with us, Rob Phillips, isaiahs Dan backhack My Harrison, I'm Kyle Yeoman's and I tease this going into the break as we continue our breakdown of the eagles twenty three to nine win over the Cowboys. Cowboys out at two and six and doesn't get easier on the horizon. Pittsburgh Steelers only undefeated team in the NFL on the horizon this weekend on the docket coming to AT and T Stadium. Now I tease this, like I said, but would Andy Dalton have one last night's game?

I mean, we look at the stats from Benda Nucci twenty one to forty one hundred and eighty yards, no touch downs, no interceptions, didn't really get close at any point of either one of those. Couldn't finish drives. The Cowboys were in, had an opportunity twice to get in this football game, especially at the end of the game. They went with it, went forward on fourth and two, didn't get it. You look at maybe kicking a field

goal there. You should have it tied at fifteen at later in the game because of where the football was. But I mean, put all that in the rearview mirror. I asked the question, Rob Dalton, does he get a w last night because of the situation of that football game. Yes, I think if they had just kind of average quarterback play last night, they win the game because of what the defense was able to do. Just to really if

they just had completed a few more throws. And I think maybe with Dalton they would have had more of that traditional game plan because because of the experience, and they wouldn't have had to try some of those plays at Kellamore tried that didn't work. Now, the protections another facet of it. And obviously with pressure pressuring Dalton, that's been a problem when we've seen him in games. And I'm sorry Coin took you away from the offensive line

in the first segment. I thought what encourages me is the run blocking that they were able to get going with Zach back in the game, that that is something to build on going forward, and that gives me some some encouragement with with Andy if he comes back this week, as early as this week, that they can establish some of that balance and keep some of that balance with Zeke and with Tony Pollard, and you know, we'll see what happens. I know, I know Heck brought up do

they need to do something at right tackle? Yeah, I mean we've been talking about that for a while. I still feel that way, you know, I don't know. I know Mike McCarthy doesn't want to switch out two spots, but I'm looking at this matchup coming up with Bud Dupree and t J. Watt and maybe you want to shore up that right side. But but yeah, I think I think with a couple more plays, I think with a couple more plays from Dalton, they would have won this game. And that's not again, that's not a knock

on the Nutsie. I think he was put in. It's a tough situation, a really bad situation for a young player trying to come and win that game last night instead of playing I think, because I think instead of playing coverage swards, then blitz is more and maybe that's that's a whole different defensive game playing if Andy Dalton is the starter a quarterback, but maybe game management wise,

Andy Dalton would have given you a lot more. Uh. It's really hard to articulate any of that after a game where offensively we just couldn't get anything going, or especially in the red zone where we had a couple opportunities to strike and only came away with three points. So look, it's I'm gonna say yes, and especially if you ask me if if Dak was starting, yeah, we win that game. I don't agree with that. If Dak is playing Isaiah's gonna just like no. Yeah, I like

to think so. I like to think so. Um. And it mainly because of the point that Rob brought up, because I was thinking about it just you know, swapping out the quarterbacks and what that would present. But you know, you have to take to account that Kelly Morris would not have been called on half the bs that he

was calling yesterday. And if they and if that's the case, and I think they do put themselves in a position to win the game, um, because I think that they probably would have stick stuck with the traditional running more than all the craziness. Uh. So I think I think they probably win the game. I'm I say that with hesitation because of the lack the lackluster effort at the office on line put forth whenever they did have any

Dolton um, you know, last week. And if they if that's an indication of what's to come, um, in terms of their effort based upon that particular quarterback, then we have we got we still have woes and worries, um. But if they gave the effort that they gave last night with a different scheme, yes they win the game. That was another encouraging thing We can talk about the turnovers on defense, but the team came out with a

little bit of an energy. They came out. I thought it was the first time, really all year we saw a bit of swagger. And I said that initially on the postgame show as well. Was we finally saw some swagger, we saw the energy. I don't know what flipped the switch in that regard, and maybe the early players helped to continue that at least until halftime, But then after halftime things kind of fell apart and it went back to normal. But where does that energy come from from

a Cowboys perspective? Is it playing for a rookie quarterback, knowing you had to do your job and just playing relentlessly as opposed to playing conservatively and sorry for yourself. I really think it has a lot to do with the with the veterans being removed, and I think I was talking to Nate about this last night. When you have some some older veteran guys on the team, you look to them as a young guy, you look to them to set the culture, You look at them to

set the tempo. You don't want to kind of overstep your boundaries, right because you're you're you're lower on a totem poles, so you kind of play your position in your spot. And you know, even when those guys aren't doing what they should be doing, you still kind of staying you in your spot because you're still second fiddle. Right as soon as those guys are removed. As soon as you remove those guys, now what, oh shoot, we could turn up. You know what I'm saying, We could

turn up. Let's go. I don't have anybody that I don't have big brother that's gonna say, hey, chill out, a little homie. I don't have that, right, So now I can go out there and I can play free. And you saw those guys coming out and they're having fun and they're getting geeked and they're juiced up, and that's what this team needs. And it was very It was awesome to see. Um. We just need to see

it turn into more positive plays. There were some positive players last night, and the defense did play better and I think a lot of that came from that energy. So I think it's just the young guys being allowed to be young guys without having to worry about big brother looking over their shoulder. Yeah, we got a lot more we got a lot more from guys that we've been calling their name tank. We had a tank siding. So for all the Tank haters, let's let's talk about

the job the tank did last night. And also Randy Gregory. Gregory, they that won what was it the Yeah, the rough in the passer? Yeah, yeah, that was a horrible call, but I think we got an interception based off of that. But either way, you saw a lot more energy and whether that was from guys getting the axe of getting their bus tickets out of town, whatever that was, you saw the defense definitely came into the game with a

different approach and I love seeing it. But just from the front line standpoint, you're just not seeing as many guys get blown off the ball. But I said this before, even with getting rid of number ninety five, you may realize that you have a few other guys on your defensive line that are still presenting problems for your scheme that you're playing. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean

they Boston Scott. I was worried about him all week, and I think he had forty something yards on the first two drives rushing and he wound up with like fifty two. They just hex right. They did a better job shoring things up with the run defense. But I mean when take Lawrence says after last game, we need more fight, we need more backbone, and he's a captain, a leader, and he steps up with a sack on

the second play of the game. And we talked about the defense needing a spark that set the tone, and then we talked about needing takeaway, something to spark this defense. Donovan Wilson comes up with takeaway right up the bat, and I think they kind of set set the tone and got themselves feeling good about themselves. And I think they made some adjustments in the run defense if they're going to continue this, and that's it was. It was a really good performance. It's something to build on. They

have to be more. They have to find a way to carry this over though, and if they're gonna do it, they've got to be able to continue being sound against the run against James Connor this week, against everybody else going forward. But I thought that first drive just kind of set the tone and got them feeling good about

themselves for once. But pick backing off of that, rob whenever you make those plays on defense and you come out with that energy and that fire, that desire, and then you give the ball back to your offense and they go wow wow right, like it literally it takes it out of you, man, instead of those guys being excited about the next opportunity, right, instead of being excited about the next opportuneportunity because guess what, we went out there, we got sacks, we got a strip sack whatever it is,

and we and we get the ball right back to our office and they go out there and they score a touchdown. Okay, cool, we got a great relationship going, right. This is a relationship. Now, this is not one sided. Nobody likes being in a relationship where you're always the one giving, right, So that's what this is. Can't turn into that because then you have resentment, and then you have guys starting to take plays off, and then you get guys starting to just collect checks. And we've already

seen that already happen. Oh, you're absolutely right. I do think this game was a little different in that I think everybody knows what Ben was up against this game, and so you know, maybe now with Andy coming back, maybe this week it's a different story. Because like you said, I mean ten you're vet. You're expecting a guy that's going to move the offense consistently. That's what you brought

him in for. But yeah, with Ben, I mean, like I said, it was what it was, you know, trying trying to get trying to get him going, trying to help him out, and whenever you talk about the energy, I mean, it finally looked like a team that was tired to get and pushed around. And maybe it was a rivalry game, maybe it was because it was primetime, but even in previous rivalry games or even primetime games, we had seen them get pushed around and kind of

embarrassed on national television. I don't think they got embarrassed last night. I thought that was a game they had a chance to win. Of course, they led at halftime. They had a chance later on to maybe tie the game if they would have had had the drive to put it together or take the lead if you had that drive. But like you said, Isaiah, it really was deflating to have the offense performed the way they did. Now.

I mentioned this earlier, but there was also some deflating plays, specifically from your whiteouts, and you need every single reception in a game like this. You need Michael Gallup to make a grab. You need Amari Cooper and Ceedee Lamb to make the catches that are in their chests. And they were on multiple occasions off of a sidearm throw from Ben de Nucci that the ball ended up hitting off their chest and falling to the turf. What goes into that as a wide receiver, and it's something that

I think shouldn't be that big of a difference. But is it that big of a difference seeing it come out of the side arm delivery? Well, you gotta get over the shock of what the heck is going on. I'm pretty sure there's no let me before I say that. There's no excuse. Okay, the old school rule, if it touches your hands or touches your chest, you gotta bring you gotta catch it, right, So no excuse, don't let me, don't let me. I don't want anybody to be misinterpret

what I'm saying. But on a hilarious note, what the heck like when you when you watch them a ball come out like that, they probably turned their head. You ever call a dog's name or you ever done something to a dog and a dog like that's probably I assume that's probably what those guys did when he pulled. When he threw that thing side on there is that and then they say, you know, you heard him say all week, the ball gets up on you quick, right,

So I'm assuming that's what happened. They probably had a little little dog moment and little ears perked up, and then the ball kept crept up on him. But I mean, they gotta make plays, man, There's there's no excuse. They have to catch the ball. You know, Denucci has to do better. I mean, to your point, Kyle, you when the ball comes your way, you gotta catch your rocket, especially when you're in these situations. Man. But I'm pretty sure they were surprised as some of the styles that

he that he utilized. We compared him to a little motion. Yeah, we compared him to a couple of different quarterbacks who have thrown that way prior, but definitely not the same result as some of the names that we threw out there last night. Now, when we come back, I want

to go to the defensive side of the football. Yes, there were four turnovers, but there was still plenty that the Cowboys needed to work on, especially when you've got weapons like Chase Claypool, Juju Smith's Schuster, Ben Roethlisberger and company coming to town this week. We're gonna talk about that defense and were those turnovers gimmis or was it the defense showing improvement. We'll talk about it next year. On Talking Cowboys, I'm Jay Novachik, former tight end for

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ten bucks, free shipping. Back to Talking Cowboys final segment here of the Monday edition of Talking Cowboys the morning after a twenty three to nine loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Cowboys facing the Steelers coming up at at and T Stadium this week. Get your tickets. If anything, you get a chance to see the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL. That's always kind of cool having them come to town. We've got heck, my Harrison, we've got it. Well, I'm just I don't have a I don't have a

ticket's read, so I gotta say something about special tickets. Uh, Rob Phillips, isaiahs dan Back, I'm Kyle Yeomans, and uh. We talked about the defense four turnovers, which is one more turnover than they had the previous seven games of the season combined. So you get the turnovers. You finally get that spark. Rob mentioned it earlier. You had to play from Donovan Wilson early on that that jarred the

ball free from Carson Wins. He fumbled it again later on in the game, and then he also threw a pair of picks, both to mister Trayvon Diggs, our second round rookie out of Alabama. But Rob, whenever you look at this defense and you finally get those turnovers. Was it they had a better game or was it just this Eagles team was pretty terrible on their own? Right? Um? Yeah,

I mean I think he is. It's all in perspective, right, But I think I think as as bad as the defense is played for stretches and really for the entire season, with giving up a historic amount of yards and points, I think you're looking for You're looking for progress. You're looking for progress no matter who you're playing. Good point. I think we got it. I think we saw it.

I thought they I think the best thing they did was was, like Isaiah mentioned was and Heck mentioned was the energy level uh and and continuing to kind of play for each other and uh and and be a little bit more assignment sound in the run game. I think there were steps made there. Um. My question is for you guys is with Treyvon Diggs, like I he had the two picks, Uh, where do you guys feel about where he's at in his rookie year because teams

are still going after him. I like how he bounced his back and he doesn't let it seem to phase him. But I hope, I hope that part of it can get he can clean some of that technique up or whatever it is that's a that's preventing him from u you know, stopping some of these big plays that they're trying to get some downfield. Yeah, he's pretty good at his short term memory is pretty good. But then they

continue to come after him. And he's a rookie, and you've heard those whispers about possibly benching him and letting some of the veteran guys go ahead so he can watch them and not be isolated in a situation where it feels like a trial by fire. But that's just who he is. And I love what Shaun Lee said about the rookie that he makes some great plays. If he makes a bad play, he's the kind of player that doesn't process the bad stuff. He wants to come

back and continue to stay competitive. I like that. I mean, just like we talk about Bend Nutie being a quarterback, a rookie quarterback, we have to realize that we have a rookie cornerback that's getting everything thrown at him. And he had contest last night versus the guy from Fogum and Man. That was a battle and at times looked like he was getting the best of him. But getting those two pigs, man, that's gotta be good for his psyche, But he has other things that he has to clean

up in his game as well. Cold on this coming to me, Oh, I'm letting it come to you. Okay, how about this here? Let me preface it real quickly because one of the biggest, one of the biggest knocks on treyvon Dix's game coming out of Alabama was the fact that he relied on his speed a little bit too much to the fact where his fundamentals weren't necessarily there. Now, this is once again a guy who switched from receiver

to play cornerback his junior year at Alabama. So he's only been a corner for two and a half seasons really at this point, and even some of that he was hurt for a good amount of time. So really less than two seasons he's had in terms of seasoning at the cornerback position. So keep that in mind when you're looking at this guy. He's gonna make plays, but he's also going to give him up at the same time.

And we saw that last night. Isaiah. I feel like you're about to go into this, but you saw the dig's name on the back of the jersey with the two in the seven there a little bit more than you would definitely like, is that what it said on the back? Yes, I appreciate the information on his his lack of experience. I mean that's definitely helpful. As my criticism of him, I'll hold back a little bit. It's a little bit, but you don't have to hold back at all. I just wanted to give some context. No,

come on, this is where you know, I's Monday. Let's go the digs. His two interceptions, he did those right, credit awesome U terrible plays by wins terrible. One of them was an awful, awful ball on a deep post that was I don't even know what that was. So that was a give me that he might as well have been back there by himself. But Brendan, you know, man, one of I don't know it should have been, Yeah, exactly, I don't know what that was. So that's that's it.

Give me um. Then you have a great catch um in the end zone. Right, a great catch by him. But what was Wentz doing in terms of throwing the ball away? Right? That was a throwaway ball that just didn't get thrown away. All the way out of the field of play. So two terrible plays that I give him. He has credit for him, but I don't really give

him credit for it. Um. There's a lot of other players in there where he was playing, where he was playing aggressive, and I and I and I and I do I do like I do like how tenacious he is here he does. He does fight. He has some fighting him, he has some dogging him. And that's more that we can say about a lot of guys on this team. And I respect the crap out of him front of that, UM, but he you can see his inexperience. You can see his inexperience. Every team we've played has

torched him. Every every ever reach at least once or at least right. So he's getting torched. And we talked about this during the week. Rob what I say, I said, don't let him play man to man. Don't do it. Stop putting him in these situations. He can't do it. He keeps walking up there like he wants to put his hands on somebody, and then guess what, he doesn't put his hands on them. He sits up there. He

tries to shadow them. Right when I say shadow them, it's literally like he's in front of them and he's trying to make a mirror what they're doing at the release point, off the line of scrimmage, and then they just simply say, oh, he's not gonna touch me, show them, and they just run by him. Right And we saw it last night, Yeah, we saw it last night, and where it happened multiple times again where guys are just running by him and it's just bad man. At a

certain point, you got to stop with that technique. If you're a big dude, you're a big corner, get up there and put your hands on him. If you're afraid of getting beat guess what they're beating you anyways, So you might as well go up there and see what it looks like when you try to put your hands on somebody. Use your size, use your length, and then go up there and continue to beat to nations. Continue to be a pest, because that's what you are. You're a pest. That's what you want to be as as

a cornerback in this league. You have a lot of great attributes, but playing off coverage, off man, press coverage, whatever you want to call it, that's not working to your advantage. I'll figure something else out. I will say the way he battles, and you're right. I mean he's given up a lot of big plays and he's not the only one this year. But the way he battles is what Mike McCarthy's looking for, what Mike Goland's looking for.

Just continuing to fight, continuing to hang in there. And I think I think they think he's gonna be better for it. I knew too, but yeah, I mean it's it's it's it's been a it's been a tough year for him. I mean it's been tough there. Quarterbacks going after the rookie. Yeah, he's an easy target, right, you got a rookie cornerback out there that's playing press man

go at him. But that goes back to what we talked about the culture change being God's not hanging their head when they make a bad play, and that's been what we've done. As soon as the bleeding starts, we don't know how to stop it, so you know, God's just continue to let things get away from them. I like the way that the defense battled last night. Things went didn't go that way, they stayed in it. They

continue to try and fight. I love that leadership from our guys like Tank I loved it, from Alvin smith Um and seeing these guys vander Esh even get involved in getting a sack that was awesome to see and that was something that he needed for his own psyche coming off the collar bone and the neck and everything else.

And so if they have anything to build on, and I know, look, Treyvon Diggs has to tape out there that says that he has had some bad plays, but we also have other tape that shows him being aggressive and gambling. Look when he did have a safety over the top and they tried him on that side, he broke on the ball and he was a step away. Look, almost don't count in this situation. But he's getting close to being the playmaker that we want him to be.

So look, he's a rookie. We can't just put him peggy and put him in this hole and say, look, this is what you are. But we can definitely build off of the good things that he's doing. And heck, yes we can build on it. And I agree with you and a lot of things, probably by ninety percent of the things you said, but that ten percent has to do everything with the fact you said he's getting close. Yeah, not close. Heck, he's not close. He will be maybe next year, maybe the year after that. This year we

were sponsored by Tostitos. He's getting Tostito out there right and and this road to listen up. Man, Hey, he's not He's not close. Man, let's just be real. I love him for a lot of reasons. I love his You guys, I'll be the first one to get into it, get him, get get on his head every week. I love There's things that he has, there's attributes that he has. Is you can't teach. You can't teach right, You can't teach the grit. You can't teach us his competitiveness. You

can't teach his hunger. You can't teach how aggressive he is. Right, You can't teach those things. Those are things that you have to want to do, have to want to be. You can't teach the fact that he has a short memory and when the balls in the air, he can go get it. Oh yeah, yeah, he can go get the ball. But all I'm saying is Al Harris is his coach. Al Harris used to be the dude that put his hands on you at the line of scrimmage.

Why isn't he doing that? All these guys that are burning him are literally just coming off the ball, giving him a little shimmy and then taking off and gassing on him. I don't know if he's if he's that confident in his speed. Bro, this is in college. These dudes got juice. Man, these are grown men. You have to do that you face last night. It is a lot bigger than you. He's six two two fifteen and he disrespected you right number of times. These dudes can fall.

These guys that are coming here this week, they're way faster than the guys that you just face, way faster. I think the Fogum didn't just do that to him. Fogum has done that to a lot of guys, a lot of guys. I'm saying the technique, the technique that you're talking about, it's just getting your head turned around. I'm talking about when he had a safety at the top and he broke on the ball, that's it. And

little things like that. You can take it for a rookie that we're trying to build him up and not destroy his confidence. That's what I'm talking about, Isaiah. I know, and like I said, I agree with a lot of those things. Heck, but he has to change these techniques. And I don't know, and I know, I know they're teaching him these techniques. I don't know what's going on why he's not applying these and taking them to the field.

But he better figure it out because these, like I said, these dudes coming in here this week, these guys are they're on they're on a track team. They're on a four bar one track team, and they all got that gold juice. Yep. Well, whenever you look at some of the receivers he's going up against, and Diggs is losing those battles at the line of scrimmage, and I think that's something that comes with the cornerback position in the NFL that you just have to learn trial by fire.

But he's not losing against nobodies. I mean last night he lost against Fulgham, who's turned into possibly one of the best receivers in the NFC East. All of a sudden, you had Terry McLaurin last week, who already is in that category. Earlier in the year, it was Julio Jones, it was DeAndre Hopkins, it was all of these different players that are top notch guys that were burning Trey Von Diggs. So listen, let me, let me make my point.

Let me make my point. But if you're gonna have him as that caliber player that you need him to be as your top corner, he's gonna have to win those battles at the line of scrimmage, and he hasn't. We saw it last night on the touchdown pass to Fulgham. He didn't. He lost that at the line of scrimmage and because of that, he had to rely on his speed to catch back up. He needs to win those battles. He hasn't so far. And until he wins those, then he's gonna get burned on occasion against some of the

better receivers in the NFL. And he's gonna get a chance again this week against Juju Smith Schuster, going up against the talent that Pittsburgh brings to the table on that side of the football. But we're gonna talk more about this tomorrow. We're bringing the heat tomorrow. Bring your fans on the fifty questions, Send them in all day today on Twitter at heck Ma Harrison. You got at Rob Phillips three, I am stand back and then Kyle underscore Yeoman's there as well, So tweet at us, send

us your questions. We'll answer him tomorrow and nine to fifty fans on the fifty and we'll also go through this defense as well. I want to know how that defensive line did. We didn't get to them today. We're gonna talk about him tomorrow, but that's gonna do it here for us on the Monday edition of Talking Cowboys. Guys, the sun came up this morning. Let's stay positive. We can be angry, we can be disappointed, but let's have a good day overall. Thanks for joining us on Talking Cowboys.

For heck Ma Harrison, for Rob Phillips, for isaiahs dan Back, and of course mister Chris Beam in the back up Kyle Yeoman saying so long, We'll see you tomorrow. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.