Talkin' Cowboys: Thanksgiving Recap

on the game. Welcome into the SWBC studios at the Star in Frisco as heck Ma Harrison, Isaiah stand Back, Rob Phillips, Chris Beam, Kyle Yeomans. We are all back from Thanksgiving break. Yes we could really call it that. I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And gentleman, the itis is sneaking in on me. I ate way too much food this weekend and I am dragging this morning. Tripp the fan, good, Yeah, it's too much turkey, too much of that stuff and it was delicious. Where did

that come from? Ask me if I regret it? And I don't regret it, tripped a fan. Yeah, I can't spell it, but that's the thing. And I hear that turkey has a thing and some kind of chemical in it that makes you automatically tired. I discovered that's the one. That's the one. Yeah, that's it. Trip the fan. Yeah, wow, everybody learned that. I was a lot. I thought it was a lie. I said this, shut up. I telling all of my in laws, like, dude, that kid out here,

stop it. It's a real thing. You come right in here and I'm sorry, and I say it. I say, it doesn't eat me. I don't have any of that in my system. I say, it feels great today. I'm grand. That mac and cheese looks fire though it was. It was fire, It was fire. I have to say I get better every year, you know, be great today. Yeah. Yeah, Well the Cowboys were not super great on Thursday thirty six, thirty three in overtime a loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.

As the Cowboys have now lost three of their last four games and four of their last five on Thanksgiving, so the Cowboys fall again on the holiday. It's holiday that hasn't been kind to the Cowboys as of late. Rob, you were at the game, what was that like? The comeback and kind of the trailing that never really felt like the Cowboys got off the ground again in the defense, giving up thirty six points for the first time in twenty twenty one. It was tripped to finish. Actually, it

was a very tripp to finish. They just it was very reminiscent of Kansas City where they just offensively can't get anything established until late and I think, you know, encouraging in the fourth quarter that hey, they finally try to go deep, get Michael Gallup in single coverage, and they took advantage of that and they hit several exposive plays. So can they carry that into Thursday? I think that's

that's the thing they got to do. But not only was it reminiscent of the Kansas City game four days ago, it's reminding me of twenty nineteen when they had Amari Cooper on that team. They went and lost three or four games in December, and I looked it up. Three of those losses. Want of them to Buffalo on Thanksgiving? No, I'm going back a couple of years. But they couldn't score more than seven points and a half. And it

was the same We're talking about the same stuff. Slow starts, how do you get it going that they got to figure that out even against the Saints team that is challenged offensively. Right now, that's really interesting to think about because right there, you good, that was not sly at all. I appreciate the I appreciate the effort there. It didn't work all right, well though, let's just blow right past that, Isaiah, what did you see on the Thanksgiving matchup? I saw

a team that wasn't focused, man. I saw a team that did not play discipline football. They did not execute, and you know when you're playing those teams, and we talked about it. We talked about how the Raiders were a team that built off of confidence and runs and if you allow them to stay close in the game, they'll start remembering who they are because they do have a roster full of very um you know, high high high caliber. Yeah, high caliber, you know, and guys that

are established in this league. You know, these guys have have attained a lot big contracts. You know, big contracts come from you know, big plays, and they you know, they allowed these guys to stay around in the game and they just didn't do well. It's more of the same. Like Rob said, you know, incompletions, bad techniques, freaking penalties galore.

I know a lot of people are complaining about the referees, and I was really really disappointed in hearing coach McCarthy bring that into the postgame conference in terms of using that as an excuse. I did not like that at all. Regardless of how true or how how adamant you might be about that, as a real feeling, you cannot communicate that to your team because it allows them now to utilize that as an excuse. It creeps in, right. It's kind of like it's kind of like the uh, it's

kind why can't I think today? It's kind of it's kind of like, you know, letting, like the complaining going on in the locker room, right, It's spreads like wildfire. And I feel like when you have a head coach somebody in that position, that it comes in the press conference and says, well, yeah, you know, there's something about the referees, it's like, crap, and what do I say? What I say? As soon as he said, I was like, that's bad, Yeah, that's real quick. He kind of backtracked

the next day a little bit. He said, our our energy on the sideline was not good enough. It was too it was too negative, like we're just, oh, it's all the refs fault kind of thing. Yeah, you can't do that, especially when you're in that position, because every person who came in and did an interview after that said, what refs, refs, refs, refs. And at a certain point, everybody's had those games where the things just don't go

your way in terms of referees. Right, you feel like the referees are against you, you're playing against the six man blah blah blah blah blas. You can't allow that to be the reason. The reality is guys were creating penalties. That's the reality. Technique was bad. That the reality. There are a bunch of flags that should have been thrown that weren't thrown. That's also the reality. So at the end of the day, you just didn't play good ball. Don't defer and try to blame that out somebody else.

Yes there's bad calls, Yes there's good calls. Happens every single game. You didn't play good, own up to it and figure out how to man allow this to happen again. The AFC west owns you right now when you leave the field, and you leave a situation where there was some plays that you made that were called back because of penalties. There were some miscalls, Like you said, the fumble to me, really was the one thing that stuck stuck out on the play. Ken O'Neill makes an amazing play.

That's a bumble that we should have had that the referees did not go back and even look at. And I don't even know what the situation was, why that

was not challenged or what have you. But you know, I don't fault Mike McCarthy for that because in the heat of battle and you see coaches get fined for that all the time, You're just getting off the field and hell you you put it all out there and you recognize that there were opportunities that you missed that were due to obviously penalties that didn't go your wayt so with human right and then obviously I don't know if the players were listening to the conference at the

same time, but you know, going back to what you were saying, Rob, I felt as though that carry over from Kansas City, just from an execution standpoint, from the second half. We've had six quarters now of that kind of football in for me. It points to what you're saying,

poor execution, poor execution. We knew we're gonna be without CD, we knew we're gonna be without Amari, and then at some point you're looking at other guys to kind of step up what centric Wilson did seven catches one hundred and four yards, although very silently, seven catches one hundred four yards, and we just didn't have that big playability. And you're talking about the FC Weston owning us right now.

It looks as though they have the formula, the recipe to stop the Cowboys by just crowding the line of scrimmage and playing man to man on the outside, but albeit without our weapons. So the reality of the situation is, look, as much as we can be down on this team, they're handicap. And if you look around the league and you see teams that don't have their main doll, they're head tocapped as well. And so look those all of these things are excuses because it's still a loss for us.

But you know, we have to point to the fact that Dak did all that he could. The running game right now is where I'm I'm most concerned. You know, I think looking bad and not have having poor execution, but the inability to run the ball right now is hurting this team more than anything. I think that's a great point because with the weapons that you're missing, you're

going to miss your production. And sure, you ended up having two one hundred yard receivers, but like you said that with a lot of that was late in the ball game when they finally found the rhythm on offense. Without Amari Cooper, without Ceedee Lamb bar none, you are not a good football team. Are not as good of a football team. You're still a good football team, just not as good without those two guys in there. And that's for a big reason. However, you're not missing anything

in the run game right now. You got an offensive lineback, you had Tyrn Smith back, you have Ezekiel Elliott. Yeah he's a little banged up, but he's still out there playing. He's not banged up enough to miss some time. And then you've got Tony Pollard who played decently well but still never really had the kind of game that you would expect. So is that the biggest concern right now, at least in terms of a longevity problem, A long

term problem for the Cowboys. Yeah, I think. I mean, I kind of go back to what I said after Kansas City to me, and it ties into the run game. The line is scrimmaged. They're not winning it. It's it's you know, the offensive line, and they've had some changes up front, and but Tyrant's back, and that's why you can't you know, I don't think you can go as far to say, oh, it's because they're missing certain guys. I think it compounds the problem. I'm with you. It's

not an excuse, it's a fact. But they're not also doing simple things to give them chances to win. Like we talked about drops and miss throws and miss blocks in space and things like that that probably get magnified more when you lose a game than when you win it. And they almost won that game, and maybe we'd be sweeping that under the rug if they pulled that out

against Vegas, almost said Oakland. But but yeah, I think I think in Mike McCarthy spo to it a couple of days ago, the win rate, I don't know what metric he's using, but upfront, they're not they're not handling that as well. And that's in the run game. That's pass protection. Zach Martin spoke about and Mike talked about movement upfront with the defensive front and not being able

to handle that as well. I think it starts up front for this team, and when you are missing your top two wide receivers, it's easier to key on the run game and say, hey, beat us in the past game. And so there's a lot of reasons why. But they gotta get it fixed, and it is fixable, but it goes beyond just hey, they're missing this guy and this guy and this guy. Yeah, I'm more concerned about the psychology of this team. The physical aspect. Those things are

easily correctable. That's watch film. Make the corrections. Don't allow it to happen again. You see Terren still get blown off the line of scrimmage by Max Crosby. Hey it happens, bro. We talked about that. We knew that happen. We knew that was going to happen. That wasn't even a question mark should limiting it. But the reality is these guys, the psychology of this team is really being challenge right now, and I'm worried about their ability to to pull themselves

out of a hole. I'm really concerned about their ability to pull themselves out of a hole. We talked about I brought up emotional intelligence last week and about our you know, the two weeks but two weeks ago, about our ability to be able to handle those forms of adversity, and how do we step into these situations, these tight games, these competitive games. Well, we see all the penalties. That's emotional intelligence. That's being disciplined, that's not doing what you're

supposed to do. That's a lack of it. Well, now we're sudden, we're fighting after the game. Well, there we go. It shows up again. Right, there's two back to back games that we just don't get out the hole. And yes, you're missing your players, but guess what, we've been missing players all year long. All year long. We've been missing key guys on the offensive front. We've been missing key guys at receiver, we've been missing key guys in the secondary.

We've been finding a way, right, so the guys have been finding a way. Now, all of a sudden, we missed two guys at the same position. And now, all of a sudden, now it's a problem. Now we're not at full steam. So it's these excuses that are kind of being let in there. We got to find a way to get out of this rut. And this next game coming up is going to give us opportunity because those guys have to try to find their way out of a rut too. Those guys have lost four straight games,

we lost to Shade games. What the heck? Who's gonna step up and decide they come out the hole? Because that's exactly where we're at. We're in a hole, and do you want to dig yourself out of it? The emotional intelligence part of it, I completely agree the fight after the game with Tristan Hill and you don't want to see that. Hell, if you're gonna fight, fight quarter one of the let's get into it, do it then before the game is Yeah, you know, I'm just saying,

but you're right. I just I don't question there for the two here, I think they've had some mistakes, they've had some success, and they can look over these last couple of games in point two. Okay, this is where we went wrong. The line of scrimmage right now is where the battle has got to begin, and we've had

some shuffling. We've talked a lot about continuity maybe they don't care as much about continuity is we think, because we saw them shuffling Stell and Layale, and I mean we see that on the college level, never have seen it much on the pro level. I don't know what they're fishing for, why they're doing this in these matchups, but obviously they're looking for something in game time. Um, but you know, look, man, these guys, these are tough. These are anybody that plays in the NFL. These are

tough people. And I don't doubt that they understand that their backs are against the wall. But at some point, with all the success that they had early, you recognize that adversity was going to be on the table. Here's that time. We could talk Mojoe moments, all the QUT stuff all we want to, but adversity finally strikes and all of the football cliches and stuff that you bang up about next man up. Look, it gets to a

certain point where that stuff catches up with you. And now it's caught up with us, And so I won't look as much as we want to pass the blame around right now, there are just some guys that have got to elevate their gaming. Whether they are injured, which all teams right now are dealing with that. We're just dealing in a situation where guys have to elevate their game. Who is that going to be? Our young guys, our rookies, our second year guys are elevating their game, But what

about some other guys. There's a few guys right now that hell, I don't know where they've been for the last couple of weeks. No, you're right, who are some of those guys in your head? Ah? Man, right, Lvie, somebody can tell me where Vee is. I'm telling you they'll be a reward poster out because I'm trying to

figure out what's going on in the running game. Kean O'Neill, I mean, he has some good plays, but there's just some things like the I mean, look, he's making tackles, the big play things, getting sacks, other things that we need from our guys. We're just not getting it up front by not being able to stop the run defensively the defensive line. When you saw not only from our offensive line, but their offensive line was able to establish drives and run. We talked about the raiders and the

methodical drives that they were able to get gone. They did that and then and it just it just took us out. I mean it really did, man. And it was a point in the game where it just looked like we had nothing to offer except for the fourth quarter. Who would you guys have a wanted poster out for it because you were looking at him and you were looking for them, and then they came up missing the last couple of weeks. For me, it's it's just I want to say, coach McCarthy, but say it. I do.

I mean, I do want to say McCarthy. I just don't. We don't know what's being said in the locker room. Let me let me let me start out by saying that we don't know what's being said on locker room, but that that post game really, really, really because it's an excuse. It's an excuse if if you're if you're the leader, and you're making excuses, what do you think that everybody who's following you is gonna do. Regardless if it's true or not, it doesn't come out your mouth.

The fact that you bring that to the press conference, you know what was said in the locker room, So yes, they don't hear the press conferences, but they hear it in the locker room, and so when they hear it in the locker room, they bring that up there. Now, guess what in a set of owning getting in saying outs us, let's fix it, is something going on with us. We can handle what we can. I told little kids I was coaching a couple weeks ago. If you don't

like the result of something, you change it. You change it. Maybe he's maybe I'm just playing devil's advocate. Maybe he's trying to get them to change it through the media. Whether I'm not saying he's gonna get fined, but I'm saying if you because I think his frustration and I think, look, you're right, like and you showed us a highlight tape last night of Anthony Brown's four pass interference penalties. And there's technique problems, I mean, like the last one for sure,

like you have to turn around, you know. So there were flags. I do think there was no rhythm to the game. Twenty eight flags to me, come on, like, you know, the game should not be four hours long. But you're right there there are penalties. I do wonder and I agree with him, And he talked about this I think the next day is there's not a consistency, Like if you go back and watch the Chiefs game, guys are getting away with grabbing the Cowboys receivers and

all that kind of stuff and they let it go. Well, the next week it's a new crew and it's so tickie tack. If there's anything, there's a flag like there needs to be more consistency with players understanding what they can do and not do week to week in a game or what's going to be called and and I think he's voicing that through the media maybe to try to get a change, trying to even the playing field a little bit. Playing devil's advocate to your devil's advocate.

Is the fact that Inception Advocate going into the game, they were scouting or parts pretty much for the coaching staff on the referee crew that they were going to have, and it was out there, it was in the open, and they knew that was the type of crew going into the game. So does that play a factor into it at all? The fact that you knew what you were going into netlisten here, Yes, referees can affect the game. Sure everybody knows that. And there's gonna be days. We

saw it on Thursday. It could be happening in your favor, it can happen against you, right and either way, you know that that's gonna be a that's gonna be a factor somehow, someway you hope that it is not, but you know usually it's gonna be a factor. What can you control? You can control coming off the ball and dominating the line of scrimmage, can't you? Did we do that? Nope? Can we do? Can we dominate the ball? And can we dominate running the ball? We can? We have we

have the personnel to do it. We didn't do that. Can we dominate throwing the ball in the air? Yes, we've been we've been bracking up four or five six hundred yards passing or maybe you know, a total offense, a lot of it through the air head. Did we do that? No, we didn't do that. Okay, what about defense? Did we play physical like we've been playing? Were they running a flying flying around with the hair on fire, where they hidden guys in their mouth enforcing turnovers like

they've been doing. No. So, at the end of the day, you didn't do what you're capable of doing. That's the reality. Now, did the referees assisting you're in your loss? Probably, but guess what, you didn't earn it. You didn't earn it. Own that fact. Don't make an excuse for why why it's something Oh yeah, well, yeah, that they didn't help. Of course they didn't help. They're not supposed to help. And to your point, it was fourteen flags apiece. Yeah,

it was all the way around. Two just played better and you've been you know, look, I think I've I've watched enough NFL football to know like those back in the days when Oakland Raiders were the most penalized team in the league, and you expected that for them, even when they had good teams, just because they were the Raiders. They just got flagged or unnecessary roughness all the time. Right now, I just feel like the Cowboys are not

getting the benefit of the doubt. If you watch enough football, you see plays like Anthony Brown made in a call not get And I'm not saying that this technique was good was good, or that the other pis that he got were not warranted, but on that last one, you know, you have a guy's face guarding basically, and you have a receiver pulling the guy into you that sealed the game, and you don't want to see referees decide the game

for you. I know you you have and I understand where you're coming from with the approach because it's old school. Control what you can control. Don't bitch about the whistles when you could do what you're doing right here on the field. But there are certain points in that game where it was like, well, come on, bro, you're gonna make that call, then you're not gonna make this up going over. And I feel like these referees whatever that whoever that crew is, they should no, don't say that.

That crew should basically be under They should look, they should watch these guys under review whatever it is, because they're trying to make themselves the focal point in the game. I think they're taking away from the game. The game shouldn't have been four hours long, and that had a lot to referees had a lot to do it. I don't disagree with you. However, we've shown this three out of our last four games, So who's whose fault is it?

And they look, you know what I'm saying like that, So I hear you, and I don't disagree with you. This characteristic. This performance has shown up seventy five percent of our last four games. Yeah, no, no, no, no, just the penalties, just the lack of execution. But they have been one of the higher penalized teams. Yeah, great, cowboys, you know what. You're the cowboy. You know it. You know it's just like the raider, you know it. So guess what. Step up and make sure they can't call it.

Don't let these boys up the line of screamas you wanted to worry about holding down the field, right, blow them off the growls. Throw these guys around like it's like there's some little little Tonka toys. You have to be more dominant when you know that you're gonna face another opponent, go out there and then destroy them so bad that they can't even throw a dog on flags. Yeah, and that's the thing defensively is you can't let this

performance affect your aggressiveness. They can't now be afraid to get flags. And we've been seeing that guys have been been hesitant to hit. Guys have been coming from the secondary kind of they're kind of backing up. We were talking about in the studio, like you rather hit them, Kayzy, freaking Neil. Some of these guys. I mean, these guys aren't hitting like they were hitting four. Yeah, remember at ten point three of your last four games, you have

not performed. Well, that's the issue addressed that stopped talking about the dog on referees. Fix what's going on in this locker room and within these meeting rooms that if you make sure you don't go out there and perform like you've been performing, especially when over the last six games, all of which are winnable for this Cowboys team. You could talk about the Arizona game. I still think that's a very winnable matchup for the Cowboys, especially if they

have some of their guys back. But this is a crucial stretch coming up for the Cowboys and it starts on Thursday against the New Orleans Saints. When we come back, I want to talk about the Saints matchup a little bit, but before we get to that, I want to talk about Anthony Brown and the game that he had. Was it as bad as we thought? Was that something that was at a sign of the future. Will kind of address it and talk about it when we come back.

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and acceptance may apply. Hi, I'm Clint Tillison with man. I'm Jay Novachek, and we're both with Turf, the official tractor provider of the Dallas Cowboys. So if you need a tractor to bail some hay, I'm more to cut some grass or a gator to get some chores done, get a John Deer at Unitedagin Turf and then let's get to work. Hey Jay, that's my line, well not today. Get to work with a John Deer tractor package that's just right for you and your budget. Visit Unitedaginturf dot

com to Talking Cowboys. It's great people, great pay. Replay here on Talking Cowboys. You've heard it already. Jason Witten has joined that Caliber Collision team. Join him to do great work with great people for great pay. Apply right now at jobs at Caliber dot com. That is jobs at Caliber dot com. Go get that pull out the webst's dictionary pull out that Webster's Dictionary in your back pocket. Don't even look up. No, I'm talking about I'm talking

about your wallet. Oh no, no, no, season, dude, that is a team player at its finest. Rob goes, what do you want me to look up? He didn't even understand what you were talking about, but he was on top of it. He was ready to get It's a back pocket break, all right. Thirty six thirty three the Cowboys fall to the Raiders on Thanksgiving. They've lost three of their last four. And we just talked about some of the high points and buy high points, I mean low points of that loss to the Raiders. Now I

want to continue with the low points here. And Anthony Brown. He's played well all season, He's played above expectations all season, but this was this was rough one for big old a B on the edge. Heck, moll, what did you think about Anthony Brown? I'll let you start this off because we could just rip the stick smelly stickers out of there. Now we're gonna keep a spell on there,

you know. I mean, some of these problems start to rid their heads all over again, and I just wish to Sean Jackson would just retire already or signaud we just sign it. You know it's gonna be a problem. And obviously speed on the outside is a problem, and many they found it. They found the weakness in the defense, and they explored it at the entire game, and they made it a pentatil on the donkey moment for Anthony Brown,

and he just couldn't he couldn't escape it. And look, he's been so good over the last couple of games and you know, getting pis and getting turnovers for us, interceptions for us, being strong in the running game. But that wasn't a good showing. There's no positive spin that I could put on it for him. Um, he looked like hot garbage out there. And the only way to recoup and get this back is you know, getting our pass rush back going. That's what we haven't had. And

a lot of guys are not having success. When quarterbacks like Derek Carr, I don't care how good are our bad they are when they you give an NFL quarterback that kind of time, they're gonna exploit some of your weaknesses on the back end. And we just aren't getting to the quarterback efficiently enough to make a difference for our secondary not playing complimentary enough. What type of receiver causes him the most issues. I think small, fast receivers

um get him. That's that's been a problem. Antonio Brown. Week one, Yeah, route runners and so when in the edges route runners, but you know, like we're getting to the playoffs, they got they gotta have a plenty of those, yes, but they're everywhere. So I mean he's struggling right now. Think about Cooper Cup Junior on the other side. I mean, I'm not necessarily Randall Cobb for the Packers, but then you'll have you'll have Anthony Brown, you'll have Gregory Brown,

You'll have Gregory back, and you'll have Tank back. So that will make help. That will make a difference as well. Right now, pass, especially on Thursday, it just wasn't there. We didn't We didn't have a lot of He had way too much time and even with Waller going out of the game, you think that, you know, those things would that was for us, but then we still couldn't exploit any weaknesses. Really, the only guy that got in

the backfield a whole lot was probably Micah Parsons. We really wouldn't be league with tackles for losses at what I read fifteen. It's incredible. He's all over it, dude. Yeah, it's legit special Bazuka. He's the high point out of the low points at the moment right now, and this three of four games stretch, he's been consistently player on defense. He welcomes the challenge. He welcome to the challenge. And we started we started talking about emotional intelligence and some

of these things. He loves it. He loves the pressure. Some guys love it, some guys responding well to it right there. They love this heightened sense of stress and they and they like to go. That's their opportunity to go out there and not only prove to others, but they're trying to more so prove it to themselves that they're capable. And he's that type of guy. What you're looking for is a whole team of those guys. And I'm not sure that that we have that right now.

I'm not sure that the Cowboys are have that identity right now. It's questionable. It's easy when things are going awesome. When things aren't going so well, how do you respond when you look at him? You know how he's going to respond When you look at everybody else you have question marks. So how does dan Quinn go back in

his bag and fix this defense? Because right now, without those key pieces that you these guys are not coming back for this game, and they're not going to be back for the other Tank might be back this week, I think takes back this week. He's got a chance to be back this He was on the field last week, which is good. You jumping up and down. That's why they I think they got him back into practice, even though it's one light practice last week, to try to

get him started on hopefully getting back. And that's and so I guess that's my question is now, with those key pieces back, how much different is that going to be for this defense because obviously we've got to generate some pressure, we've got to get some stops. You saw the time of possession for the Raiders again, it was those long, methodical drives that they had, and they scored on those drives. We couldn't take advantage even when we tried to steal some momentum back. Our defense just came

out flat. We were not attacking. You saw guys trying to shy away from getting tackles. We're not the physical team that we are anymore. So that culture that we started the season with has dissipated. How do we get back? I think you called him out. You call everybody else as a man. This is a team made up of a bunch of individual men, and you have to challenge these guys you you highlighted on the film and you call them out and say, what the heck are you

doing here? La, what the heck are you doing here? And everybody's like, oh, you know what's holding your breath and make sure you're not the next man that he highlights. But you challenge each guy as a man and say, how are you going to respond to this? You know? And so this is when the culture of competitiveness really comes in because if you're not gonna do it, guess what, I bet you he will, right, I bet you he will.

And so you have opportunity to go out there and show me that you're not gonna allowed has messed to happen again, that you guys you're gonna execute show me at your physical showman as you can run this defense, and if you can't, I'm going to the next man. And I think some of it falls to the offense. I mean drink every time we say complimentary on this show, but if you guys want to and we got a fruit cup over there, but that was my Martin Ellis

can't get. You know, these three and ounce Cowboys had five three and outs offensively in the game, two out of their first three drives, and you're you're putting the defense out in the field for a long time. And I think when they've been successful, it's been in part this year because playing with the lead, more fresh and Cowboys offensively controlling the last scrimmage and hasn't happened. So I think it kind of goes hand in hand a

little bit. Well, that's where a lot of the struggles came from last year, was not playing complimentary football, drinking drink. But that's the thing for me, is you're asking who is the guy that steps up? Who who does who gets to challenge this team? I think Tank Lawrence is one of those guys that has to come in and immediately play up to the caliber that Lawrence can play, because that's a reality that leader What was that? Do you think that's a reality. I don't know if it's

the reality yet I'm saying. I'm saying, do you guys have those expectations of Tint that come in and be what Tank was. Hell, yeah, yeah I do. I don't. Why is that I do? Okay, I don't. Why not reps? You just don't think he's there. Ye gonna have to get into it. Even as a veteran player that's been in the league as long as he has. You just said, the rust is gonna be there and you're not gonna see. I think he bring him in a limited action obviously

in rotation. You know, maybe he doesn't well he starts the game, but you know, keep he doesn't take all the snaps, you know, and use him sparingly. You still have bash him, you still have Ghost and you have some guys at Armstrong that have you know, played up to part been his in his with his absence. But if he comes in with a full workload, I would be very very surprised. Yeah, I don't think they're doing

him like that. Isaiah's point different injuries obviously, but when he had the shoulder surgery a couple of years ago, he talked about like he missed a lot of time rehabbing. His technique wasn't what it was because he's big on that right when he came back. So maybe there's some of that, But I'm with Heck, like, I think, hell get him in there in a rotation and that motor is going to be big. I think he can set a tone for them and help establish that physical part

because that's just that's who he is. And we mentioned this whenever Jalen Smith was released earlier in the season, but the guy who they turned to to look at it wasn't necessarily Jalen Smith, but he was one of the ones that wanted the attention on him. Tank Lawrence is the same kind of guy right now. And at the moment you're looking at Micah Parsons, your defense is looking at a rookie and saying, all right, where do

we go next? You need a veteran to step into that role and to take that that that figurehead of the defense. Micah said the other day, like he can have all these chips, all these you know, the chip blocks and all that stuff. Yeah, but come on back, I'm getting shipped every player. Yeah, it's gonna help out a lot. Yeah, you're right. I hope it does. I hope it does. The only concern that I have is that Tank comes back trying to beat Tank and then he when he's not, what's his response, M And I

don't think he would fold. Yeah, going to the psychology, you've talked a lot about the culture of you know, this team and what dan Quinn brings to it. And if a guy is out he's feeling like he's being left out of the party. I think that's a lot. I think Tank feels that right now that he's been left out a lot of the fund that's been going on, and now that they're in the slump, he could be a part of the reason that they get back in

the win column. I mean, for Mary Cooper, imagine how he feels being out for the last two games and recognizing that his team has struggled without him. We hadn't been able to get a lot going as far as drives because of the attention that's played to Mary Cooper in the last two games. So you know, I just think that that absence cannot be under something. We can't say enough about that. But if Tank can come back and he can have an impact on this defense, I

think it's going to mean a lot. Yeah. I hope, I hope that he can And I don't disagree I believe that he's hyped up is more than anybody ever could be in terms of coming back. But my concern is when you're that hype and when you know that everybody's looking at you, you know that you're the an now as the leader, what happens when you come back and you're just a guy? What's your response then? Do you still lead with? What? Do you still lead in

the locker room? Do you still lead on the field or are you going to show your frustrations and now let that continue to snowball onto other people. That's that's what my concern is. I hope he comes back and he's freaking d law and he balls out. But if he doesn't, what is his response because if that is just as as important as him coming back and balling. But that's integrity and character, all the things that you know. It's also frustration. It could be frustration. We will see,

We'll see. But how did you how did you guys think about about Gallup his his his resume in terms of his opportunity to be the number one guy. It took it till the fourth quarter for it to show up, but he had a little bit there. He showed he can do it, I think, but it's going to be a question on will he do it. Yeah. I mean it showed up late a fourth quarter offensively, they didn't

get going anything until the fourth quarter. Um. I agree with Jerry after the game when he said we probably could have thrown just thrown it up more and challenged and said, hey, throw the flag flags. That's what Vegas did. So I think late he showed everything we talked about, like what he could add coming back. He showed in the fourth quarter with the you know, contested catches down

the field, take the top off all that stuff. Oh. I cannot wait to have those guys back, with Michael Gallop and having Lamb and Cooper and everybody back and healthy. I want Dalton Schultz to play better. It just it was it's all together Dak too. And I was going to ask you this. I felt like in the last those last couple drives fourth quarter, Dak's footwork looked better. He just looked more in rhythm when they got more up tempo. I don't know if they can do that

the entire game. I swear to God, we have these same conversations in twenty nineteen. Yep, should they go up tempo more. Should they do that to try to get him out of this rut, because it's the same conversations we've had. Well, when you have five, three and ounce, it's really hard to get any rhythm going. And that's the only thing that you can do. You see him college, high school, all of that. How do you get in rhythm? You go up tempo, you get things moving a little

bit faster. You saw Kansas City do it in the in the Super Bowl versus San Francisco. They went up tempo in the second half to get back in rhythm. We're just finding it, and I think the offensive line continuity not being there, and obviously Steele did I say, yeah, I did. It's the way I don't have to worry about a rotation. Unfortunately that week, Ye, there's not going

to be one. And why is that Rob Phillip because he is in COVID protocol, who is with Terrence Steele along with multiple assistant coaches, all three strength coaches, Joe Philbin on the offensive line coach, Jeff blasco his assistant and hopefully that's it. Yeah, I'm moving forward because you don't know about that. That whole situation they're in the

extended protocols again today. Umi was out last week, wasn't he yea yeah, yeah, there were three coaches out that missed the game, and now it's more Scott Tolzine an assistant coach, another assistant coach, like and guys are being tested now daily, vaccinated or run vaccinate, I believe, and try to cross your fingers there's no more cases over the next couple of days. So that's so scary, man,

because everybody the NFL is been dealing with it. It seemed to subside for a little while, and I don't know if everyone relaxed, but it's it's going to continue to rear its head over the NFL season, and you just don't want this to happen at pivotal times in

the season. So I applaud the organization for starting this process of hey, daily testing, starting to isolate guys right now because pretty soon, man's it's just going it's going to keep continue to go up the ladder and it's going to be somebody that we can't miss like that. It sounds like a Mario be back today, So that's good. You hope, hope Terrence is doing well. But yeah, they actually,

we're gonna league mandates this now. But they actually started it last week with the protocols because they had guys out last week. But this is I mean, it's still reality. It's it's like injuries. It's still a factor in your day to day out the season. Gotta keep an eye on it and hopefully it doesn't rear its head at the worst possible time. This is a pretty important time for the Cowboys to try and get back on track

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you're cheering in the stands. With or lenses, you can see every exciting play book an appointment at your local or experts and see what esselor can do for you. See more two more or on Talking Cowboys. If you didn't get enough of your crazy uncle during Thanksgiving weekend, you just got more of it. And who made this mac and cheese? Oh yeah, I'm saying, Oh my gosh. All right, final couple of minutes here of talking Cowboys. Chris Beam in the back, We've got Rob Phillips, We've

got Isaiah stanback. Heck My Harrison, I'm Kyle Yeoman's and gentlemen, the Cowboys and the Saints coming up on Thursday. We've got just one more show after this. We've got one on Tuesday, and then it's game day on Thursday. So pack it all in tomorrow. Yeah, we got we got both the offense and the defense tomorrow and pick them jam pack show. And are you feeling good about you perked up a little bit? I don't. I just haven't looked at it either. I haven't no idea at this point.

I just at this point, I know I'm good game. I always picked right, always picked that game right in two goodness. Sorry, Yeah, you're catching us just on the couch, just on the Cowboys alone. That's not good. So not at all. Um, What are some of the early things that you've looked at with the Saints and some of the early challenges that could potentially be there. The biggest thing jumps out to me is their defensive front and their run defense. And you know, like Carolina had a

great run defense early in the season. Cowboys blew that up. But now we're ten eleven games in and the Saints are given up three point four yards and carry. They're very good up front. Yeah, and uh, you know there's been some questions the media, how much zeken playing this game? Could they consider resting him. I don't think he wants to rest, he said yesterday, you can manage it. Nobody to this point has come to him and said, would

you consider resting? But they're watching his snaps. You know, he hasn't had fifty snaps in a game in like last four games, So even if he does play, they'll probably try to manage him. Tony Pollard, can they get that going in this game? You know that? That's to me, that's the key because they heck said it early in the show. They gotta get some balance back offensively here. Ye Zeke not gonna let them trick him out of

his spot. If the same people selling you the rest that if at the end of the season telling you you're overpaid and trying to look to PFF and analytics, yeah exactly. I don't let them do that to you. Zeke. You know, tough it out, and that's exactly what I feel like he's gonna do. But I'm with you, Cameron Jordan worries me yea, And wherever he lines up, we've got to pay some attention to that. But then on the back half, of their defense. They have some guys

Malcolm Jenkins and Marshaw and Lattimore. You know, look, they they have some guys and some dudes that they're gonna do the same thing that the Raiders did. They're gonna do the same thing that the Chiefs. They're gonna pack the line of scrimmage and they're gonna bear. You dare us to beat them on the back half with all of our weapons back if they played like that on Thursday,

I think we score forty burger. Now here's the thing. Offensively, our defense cannot allow the Saints and Trevor Simeon to get going. They off there and apt offensively. And it's really kind of surprising to say that from a Sean Payton coach team that they have the problems that they have. But but without Jamis Winston and obviously with Bridge retiring, they've had some trouble getting this offense back going. But

they run on confidence. Also, you're gonna be down there in the in the dome, and brother, it's gonna be loud. If you had problems before with noise, you're gonna have it again. And you know, if they have anything going, trust me, they're gonna continue to keep those things going. But special teams wise, I've been loving what we've been doing. Like Tony Pollard ran back when Look, that's not enough to be said about that, especially with the rule changes

on kickoffs. To be able to run kickoff back in twenty twenty one is something. But you know, special teams watch, we're gonna have to do it in all three phases and play complimentary ball. Well, the Saints are owing four in their last four games. They don't have a quarterback that can move the ball. They're not effective in a passing game right now. The running game has been very minute. Obviously Kamara has been out for the most part. Ingram did nothing and um, they're so their offense is in

a bad, bad way right now. So our defense, opportunity to get your mojo back, mojo moment, whatever you want to call it this week, opportunity to get your swag back. Okay, so that's a swag back game. Offensively, we have to figure out a way to move the ball against a team that has some goons on defense. That's just the reality. It's not just talent. These boys are goons. They built different,

they have different makeup, they're upbringing. It is different if you if you at Tristan Hill you want to punt somebody in the mouth, this is not the team to do it against, because all these boys will step up to you real quick in a hurry, in the form of Cameron Jordan, Malcolm Jenkins, Damario Davis, Geez. I like him a lot. They have some dudes on defense, So

we have to take advantage holistically on defense. Special teams own that we should at least own two thirds of this game, and then offensively, offensively, we have to find a way to get something rolling. I think that's the biggest thing for this is defensively. You look at it and you say, this is gonna be a tough matchup. The Cowboys offense needs to find a rhythm against a very,

very talented Saints defense. The Saints defense hasn't played well though They've had their lapses over the last couple of weeks to give up thirty one points to Buffalo on Thanksgiving too. They haven't played necessarily well, so they'll have a chip on their shoulder going into the game. You've got to win that matchup. If you win that matchup, I feel pretty confident about slowing down the Saints offense,

there's not a ton of threats there. Even though they may get album Kamara back, they're expected to get Alvin Kamara, of course they are. I think even then, I'm still not uber uber worried about that offense. I think you can figure out a way to find some mojo on the defensive side. But man, that's gonna be two matchups we're talking about tomorrow, and we'll outline it a little bit more in depth when we return nine am Central

Time on Tuesday. That's gonna do it for us here on this edition, though, for Chris Beam in the back, for heck Ma Harrison, Rob Phillips, Isaiah stand Back, I'm Kyle Yomen saying so long from Talking Cowboys presented by Tostidios. We will see you tomorrow. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.