Talkin' Cowboys: The MVP Debate

It is a Thursday before the Cowboys and the Chiefs. Week of Weaven of the NFL season is here, and we are going to talk about the Cowboys offense and how they can exploit that Kansas City defense over the next forty five minutes. Hope you're buckled up ready to go, because Heck Harrison's here, Isaiah standbacks here, Rob Phillips as always, Chris Beam in the back of Kyle Yeoman. So glad you're with us, And gentlemen, there you go. I mean,

it's it's gonna be collecting coins. It's warm, fuzzy feelings all the way from here on out. That's some super Mario. Yea love it. Chris, who you go and do the jump and then you hit the brick and then dud the little coin pops down? How goes? What was that? How did it? God? Is that? How it is that? One? Instead? Cut that? And then if you use that on any other show other than ours, I could just imagine Derek being like, what the heck was that? What are we

doing here? So? Ho ho ho? Thanks Brad. Another grace even better? Oh it is? Yeah, it's tis the season. Anybody looked at Christmas lights? Everybody put up their Christmas lights. Yet no wife's been on my head about it, so I guess it's just it's coming in here soon. It's coming. Heck, min's your tree up? Nope? Not yet, nope. No. Do you guys hang your own lights up at your house? Yeah? Outside? Yeah, since we've moved though, No, we might put it like

a little lit up yeah, something low ornament. I did it one time, like at the arch of the house, like the very peak. I won't do that again, like Christmas vacations. Yeah, that's not me. Or I was definitely up at the top. My wife left me so inside of it. Hey, wait, a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait, if I fall and break some up, I need somebody to call them called nine one. Have you ever fallen while doing the Christmas Like, oh heck no. I was

so scared though. I was literally shaking on the top of the peak of my house, just kind of holding a bear. I'm gonna like this looking down like help, sound like me with the heights. Yeah, I always do all my stuff. Man, It's yeah, that's just wish. You know, how long does it normally take you to do it? Because I don't have a house yet, so I don't. It's it's a well now that I have, you know, I incorporate the kids in and as well, so it's not what yeah, get a little heck out there. No,

we get everybody. I mean, if you want to lie, yeah yeah yeah. And so it's a team effort and so what happens. It's really cool. You know, my daughter she names all of the little blow ups that we have. So so we have a snowman she's named at CARDI b don't even ask, it's just what it is. And we're just gonna deal with Christmas as the Heckma's house looks like the grizz Walls. It does. I'm married to the black version of the grizz Walls, so trust me.

It's at my house once and my wife walked outside as me and my dad and his truck was in the front of our house with the ladder on it, and my wife, No, who are calling to do this next year? Who's who's doing it next time? Because it's not you? No, But it's a family, a familyoy. You get everybody out of here and watch this. Yeah, that's the best line right before trouble, but right right before truble.

If you hear that line, then you know something's uh and and man, I've heard that a couple different times in my life. I grew up in a country family out in Waco, and we had we had some land out there. There was a couple hold of my beers. That's awesome. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. But uh, anyways, with the with with it being November eighteenth, I feel like everybody's still I was driving through a neighborhood yesterday and every other house already had their lights

up and stuff. So I was asking you guys, if you were on that train yet. Well, it's big business now. For like these little lawn usually it's like a long company that comes out there and just hang your lights. Now, yeah, you just kind of it together with your three hundred dollars, you know, for you to rent them for them to come put your lights up, take them down. And I need to look at that then going yeah, Rob's like that's not that bad. Less effort for me. Yeah, there

you go. All right. News and notes from the Cowboys back on the practice field yesterday, and it really seemed like it was a lot of good news from the Cowboys. No bad notifications from Rob Phillips yesterday. Thank you was for heck, that was just for heck. Yeah. This is the cleanest injury report I've seen since I don't know, Week one, maybe knock on wood a few times. There's only one guy who was limited nobody miss practice, you know.

That's on the active roster currently, Tyrann Smith limited with the ankle injury. Only other guys on the injury report Mary Cooper, Zeke Will Greer, the backup quarterback Cedric Wilson, and the Sean Wright all full. Wow, so no CD even on the injured list. He's on it. Oh, he's on it. But a full participate. Yeah, with that tricept deal.

So he's good. Well, that's good because I know, at least toward the back end of that game that was one of my worries was looking at him on the sideline and him, of course not coming back in a lot of a lot of that had to do with the fact that it was forty three to three, so thank goodness for that, he didn't have to come back in. So I'm glad to see him ready to go. Yeah, I thought it was a shoulder game. Arm contusion is what they said during the game. But he looked okay

on the sideline. There is that the new word for booboo contusion? I think so some bruise or yeah, some guy came at me with like ten questions, So you mean a bruise, Is that what that is? I'm like, yeah, that's what it. I'm just giving you. The quad contusion is the worst. Sounds bad. Oh, it's terrible. Why is it worse than any other because you can't bend you can't bend your leg if you mean, that's why thipads

are so important. A lot of guys back in the days to try to take the thigh pads out and they would get fine, So you have to So guys would literally take the thigh pad. High school students don't listen to this. Take the thigh pads, take a razor blake, cut it open and take the It's a hard plastic insert so it's like really thin. And you guys would slide that into their pants to say if they have

their thiahpads, because they do. Um. But if you didn't have that and you take a shot to the thigh, oh man, you have to sleep with your knee bent wrapped with an ace banish because if you straighten it out and it starts trying to you know, the scarchis you starts trying to build knee, trying to bend your knee. Have fun with that and like sitting down. I feel like even now it would hurt if you're sitting on a on a stool or if you're just working. You

know that happened to Dez Bryan against that. I believe it was the Jets. Remember that rom Yeah, I remember that's what he had. Yeah, you're right, he did a I think it was a punt return and it put him out for like gosh to put him out for like a while, like six weeks. Wow, it sucks. Yeah, it was bad. Goodness six weeks for a contusion, Huh, it was it was bad. We lost him for a

while that week. It's not fun. Not fun. Well, luckily, Ceede Lamb's good to go, and we're going to see him back on the field this week, because, well, this Cowboys offense has an opportunity to really make their name known across the nation if it hasn't been already. I feel like the nation's already taken notice on what the

Cowboys were doing on that side of the football. But I want to kind of keep the opening conversation of this show centered around Dak Prescott because you're looking at the stats going into it with Mahomes and Prescott, and this is a historically, i mean a potential for a historic matchup because of the numbers coming into it. You look at some of the different comparisons of games before. I mean, Manning and Romo are on that conversation. You

look at Breeze in Romo back in twenty fourteen. I mean, there are a bunch of different ones. That one didn't go well for the Cowboys, but there are a bunch of different big time matchups that this lines up against in terms of quarterbacks, and of course it's Dak's first trip to Arrowhead, It's mahomes first game against his childhood

favorite team in the Dallas Cowboys. So is this the best opportunity to see Dak Prescott take that step to being considered elite not just around Cowboys Nation, but around the entire nation as a whole. Oh yeah, yeah. To answer that question, okay, well yeah, I mean this is this is you want to go against the best. You want to circle this on the calendar and say, look, I get an opportunity to show everybody how I match up. Obviously, it's a team game and you need so many different

people to help you be successful. But for Dak, he I'm sure he's tired of everybody keeping him on the outside of that elite conversation. And there are some guys, Look, you don't touch the Aaron Rodgers is, the Tom Brady's, even Patrick Mahomes. He's done it at a high level for so long, so come on, I mean, but you

cannot continue to keep him out of that conversation. And there's so many people that they try and push to the front without even giving him credit for his QBR how he came in the league not turning the ball over. I just feel as though, obviously it's the cowboy Hey, I'm much gonna put it out there, this is the cowboy hate. But you can no longer deny Dak of elite status. And then he has Ezekiel Elliott, he has the offensive line and what if this? What if that?

He has all of those things and he's successful in it. He's done it really well with Kellen Moore's offense and the throws that he's making. Like one of these guys had made a walk off touchdown throw like he did against New England, we'd still be seeing the highlights from But Dak does it. Let's see it a couple of times. It's not on replay because it's Dak right. And then they don't want to go back to when they were talking about when WinCE was better than him, or they

the Detroit quarterback was better than him. They even Matthew Stafford, Matthew the one that's now current. Oh, I think matt Stafford as well, matthe Stafford and Jared Goff, but they compared him and now, especially last season when it came down to all of the contract talk. Was that gonna get paid? And what was that gonna get paid? How

does he measure up? Patrick mahomes got I think he got signed this contract right before Dak signed is you can no longer keep him outside of this contract, I mean outside of this conversation, whether whether it be to money or playing. He she's showing you at each level. And that's just my belief. And I'm a homer, so to take it forward with a grain of salt, because that's where I'm putting it. But I'm just saying, there's no way that you can keep Dak outside of the

conversation any longer. Statistically, it's true, he's played better than anybody else in the league right now. Over those guys, he's played better than those And it's on the film too, And I agree with you completely, And yes we are a Cowboys podcast, but at some point you look at the statistics, you look at the completion forage, the way he's take care of taking care of the football, the way he's navigating an offense, and you have to put

him in that conversation. Yeah, I personally think he's getting the due he needs Nationally. I hear you. I know there's haters out there, especially within this division, the fan bases and all that, but I think people were recognizing how great of a season he's having. I don't know that he's considered the top of the MVP race right now, but this is the game to elevate yourself into maybe

the first spot. Him and Kyler, I think should. I think he and Kyler should be considered the top two guys right now based on the way their teams are playing. They're rising stars in the NFL. I think that always should carry weight what they're doing as far as improvement. And then they play each other at some point down the road too, so I think that'll be a lot

of fun. But I think if you go on the road to Arrowhead and you go toe to toe with Pat Mahomes and you win that game and you play well, I think he should be the front runner for MVP. That's just me personally. Why Kyler and Dak over some of the other quarterbacks. Josh Allen's having a great year. I mean, there are other guys out there, but why those two. Well, maybe I'm partial to see it, wanting to see something new. Maybe that's just me but you

mentioned the stats. I mean, among starters, the top two guys in terms of completion percentage, just for one stat it's Kyler and then it's Dak and it's over seventy percent. They're the only two guys in the league doing that. And you think about, like Mike McCarthy said yesterday, this is not a dink and dunk offense that we're running here.

That's what makes it so impressive. Yeah, and you know they both miss a little time off the field, but you know, usually this award goes to the teams who have the best records, and these teams are right there, Arizona and Dallas right now. What do you think? What's your original question? Is Dak supposed to be in the elite conversation? Does Dak deserve to be in that elite conversation? Yeah, I don't think that he isn't. I think I'm along

the same lines as Rob. Cowboys are gonna get hate regardless. I don't care if it's quarterback, running back, office a line, it doesn't matter quarterback. The Cowboys are going to receive hate from around a league, around other fan bases. That's just reality. But also the reality is Dak is getting respected from the league, from players, from people who decide on who's having a conversation in terms of MVP race.

I think Dak is in those conversations. I think what separates Dak from some of these other guys that we that we're talking about when we started talking about the Aaron Rodgers to Tom Bradys and things like that, is his playoffs. That's what people are, I think, are waiting to see. So I don't think this game so much is gonna give him that big jump that everybody needs to see to be in this considered this, you know, for guys to consider him to be, Oh my god,

he says this elite quarterback. I think he's an elite quarterback in terms of how he's playing right now. But when you talk of talking about elite in terms of career wise, I think people are going to look at the playoffs and that's just that's just the facts. That's our male bad question today. Actually, why why are the Cowboys considered underdogs? It's resume. I mean, it's it's resume.

Pat Mahomes is twenty five years old and he's done it all already, and he's playing really well and this team starting to ascend like we thought they would, and they're playing at Arrowhead. That's that's why the Cowboys are or underdogs in this game. But if you look at the whole body of work, there's no reason they can't go in there and win the way they play when they're playing their best, and Matt Stafford is considered elite

and he hadn't won a playoff game in there. There's what I guess when I'm what I'm referring to is the people that say, like, right now, when you talk about the MVP race, yeah, how is he not you know, tops in that MVP race? Who do you think that of him? Like? Nationally, who do you think people are talking about more? I think people are definitely talking more about Kyler. People are definitely still talking more about Aaron Rodgers,

even with the games that he missed over Dak. I think even Tom Brady at this point, you know, I just believe Jarrick Henry's probably in that conversation as a non quarterback, but he's not gonna win it now, right, And so I mean, look, just going back to years past, I think it was eighty seven John Elway one h MVP, but then at the same time Montana was balling, Rice was balling Jared Rice one offensive Player of the Year that year, and they went to the player I believe

they played Man Denver played New York the Giants in the Super Bowl. That yeah, this Giants won that game. But still, you know, you talk about how the national media tries to prop other guys up against and it's always good to use PFF when it is in favor of your argument. You know, you know, I definitely that if I need something like it's the end all be all when he was well, p PFF said where right now, even when you go to PF, Dak's numbers are legit

versus everybody. That's all I'm saying is give him his due, now, you know, give him his due. That's my only point. I mean, there are guys in the I mean, Stephen a is making an NFL part of his career out of hating cowboys. It's I mean, it's kind of a wrestling character. You know, he didn't see and he knows it like it's it's it's a stick. Yeah, it's it's a bit so beyond that, like, I don't think there's

a lot of hate for Dak. I do think, like Isaiah said, there is some of hey, they they they're this good, gotta they gotta go prove it when it really counts, you know. I think it's a little bit of in between. Sure, the resume does play a factor because I think if maybe Dak Prescott would have had some playoff success, and I mean certainly with this team

he could have playoffs success. But once again, if it doesn't happen, then he's going to be right back there, slotted back down because of how quickly understandably people can turn. And also not to mention, I think, like I said, I think it could be kind of in the middle here because if he goes out against Kansas City at Arrowhead and he throws for three fifty throws three touchdowns, doesn't throw a pick, Cowboys win by a touchdown or two.

I think that conversation is automatically Okay, Kyler, you're doing great, But Dak Prescott's the MVP candidate, He's the front runner at the moment. That's what kind of game this could be for Dak. I'm not saying that, I'm not predicting that's the case, but if he goes out and does it, which he could. Then all of a sudden, he's right up at the top of that MVP race, and I don't think it's a doubt. You don't want him to

win the MVP though there's an MVP the jinks. Yeah, the last person to win the MVP and to win the Super Bowl was nineteen ninety nine and Kurt Warner, I like that twenty five years So, Dak, I need you to throw for one ninety one touchdowns and the

coop in the regular season not translate to super Bowl success. Yeah. True, it's only been ten players ever do it well if they get if they get the buy and I'm getting way ahead of myself, jump out the I'm just saying, if they get the buy and win, however many games and he's still playing at this level, he's the MVP. I don't think you can make another case for I really don't after and I think that's part of his story too, you know, he might he's I think he

should win't come back too, but they can win. You come back in his sleep. He I think he can win Comeback Player of the Year right now. If I mean, if the season ended it was it would definitely be his but you're right that consistency has to continue now real quickly before we take our first break. How just

every time I look at this number, I'm astonished. But seventy percent completion, how just unbelievably tough is that to do at any level of football across the board, high school football, college football, it could be middle school football. Completing seventy percent of your passes is unbelievable. Him and Kyler Murray are both doing that. How tough is that

to do from a quarterback standpoint? And it's really tough, And I think it's a testament to not only the system, but his adaptation of that system, his decision making, his accuracy, all those things. I mean, that's not when people here completion percentage, people just think, Okay, well man, he's he's really accurate with the ball, And that's not always the case.

It's also about the decision making when you throw the ball, when you decide to keep the ball, when you decide to dump it off to a shorter route instead of being trying to force something down the field. So it's it's a it's a picture. It's a snapshot image of a bit of of something that's outside the frame. Right, it's a larger picture, but you can't. You can't encompass everything with just that one stat But I think he's

doing an amazing job. And yes, seventy percent is crazy, especially in his NFL, especially in a system that they're running. That's just nuts for me to look at. I mean, when Heckma and I are doing a high school game or a college game and we see somewhere like sixties mid sixties of completion percentage, We're like, that guy's balling money. That guy's do that guy's dealing right now. Seventy percent. It's just next level. And Dak Prescott's doing that all right?

When we come back, what kind of mismatches does the Cowboys offense have against that Kansas City defense? Where are the weak spots? Because there definitely are some on the cheap side of things. When we return with more talking Cowboys, Honey, big news, Gary? Are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore. I'm Jackie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone, but the best deals are only for new customers. So to get a new customer deal, I changed my name

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do Moore Slor to Talking Cowboys. It's a great people, great pay replay here on Talking Cowboys. You've heard it by now Jason Witton, Big number eighty two gold jacket. Witt has joined the Caliber Collision team. You can join him to do great work with great people for great pay. Apply now at jobs at Caliber dot Com. That's jobs at Caliber dot Com. Welcome back into a Thursday edition of Talking Cowboys. This is a fun one Cowboys offense versus the Chiefs defense. Hope you've enjoyed it so far.

We've got a special guest coming tomorrow. I haven't told anybody in this room exactly who that's guest is awesome. I will reveal that at the end of the show. How about that? How about that at the end of the show, we've got a special cast joining us. Was Isaiah just like threw his phone down and just a question of what that. You were on set for the draft coverage like three years ago and we had Dave Campo on, Oh Kelly and he said something to yeah

instead of Campo. Yeah. Lindsay kind of coaxed him into doing it, and he was like, how about how about how about right into the camera show I love campus, Oh Campo? Very What about this Kansas City defense? Are there any weapons on that side? Are there any problems on that side of the ball. Sure, there's probably a couple, But where are the weak spots? Isaiah? When you look at the film on this, where can the Cowboys have

some success? Best offense in the league. This is not the best defense in the league, no doubt about it. But if you're going to try and keep pace with an offense that's catching fire like the Chiefs, you're gonna have to have quite the game on your offensive side of the ball. So where does that start, I think

we can exploit their corners. I think that I think I believe that they have some some guys on the defensive line, let's not and at the second level, I think their strongest point of their team is at their safety position. Um with the Soreson and and honey Badger. Both of those guys back there are pretty dog on good. Um, so you want to try to keep things on the outside, keep them out the game. They're gonna find their way into the game. Um. The honey Badger is just too

good of an athlete. He's going to be all around the place. But I think we can exploit their cornerbacks. And that's going to be dependent on us obviously making sure that guys like Chris Jones don't have an opportunity to go off and create and create some issues for us. If if Steel is gonna be over there, that'll be

that'd be his his his thunderbuddy for the day. So we have to make sure that him Melvin Ingram, you know, obviously, then the newly acquire Melvin Melvin Ingram, keep those guys at bay so that Dad has time to throw the ball. Because if he does have time to throw the ball week and we can take advantage of these cornerbacks all day long. Did you say steal for offensive line? Smith not coming back? Are you talking about right tackle? I'm talking about left left tackle. I think Smith's coming back

this week. Right He was limited in practice? Did I hear it? Did I miss something? Haven't got the word that he's back yet, So I'm assuming still still there and they're hopeful. They're hopeful. They practice in pads today. Man, I was like I had already choked it up that Smith was back. I think they're very optimistic about it, but as Mike said yesterday, they want to see him hopefully go through a full week. So I don't know if you could just put it in pin yet that

he's playing this week. Yeah, but I think I'm hopeful. Okay, I say it just ruined my whole morning. I mean, I mean the reality they have. They have a couple of dudes at d N. I mean, they're not like freaking all pro guys right now, but I mean Chris Jones and Frank Clark, both of those guys are respectable. Both of those guys are respectable, and then they they

have some help at the second level. Now, Um, you know, obviously Hitchens and the like I said, um, Melvin Ingram, both of those guys, those I mean, those are those are some respectable dudes now that you have to acknowledge that you have to take care of otherwise they if they get some confidence, they correct some stuff for you. What do you think, Steve Spagnolo, it's your birthday, you know, you know how I feel about guys that played against us,

And you know in the NFC, E's Spacknolo. He's another guy. He's on the I'm on the revenge tour with him as well. Man lookt about what's Bags did to us and at four three defense that he brings. But you're right, Chris Jones, Frank Clark, all of those guys are are guys that you have to watch, and they play an aggressive style. They're trying to make up for some of

their h and some of the things that they can't do. Um. You know, in Anthony Hitchins Man, I hated to see Anthony hitchins leave because he was solid for us in the middle. But I've also I'm happy that he was able to get a Super Bowl job. But he's a guy also that I think, you know, he's slowing down a little bit, and I think running game wise, we can do some things against them. I think by getting Zeke established early, it's going to be very important when

we die. We had an interview with coach Dana Dimmo from Utah and I was pointing out the first thing I did was I attack him about his gray hair. He's like, well, you can't talk about me. Look at the grid your bid. He said, well, sometimes the best offense, the best defense is a good offense. So heyna, I'm gonna go right to that that I know that our

offense has to I know feel positioned. Ball control is very important in the game like this, but you know, just establishing the run, I think it's gonna be very important. But Honey Badger, the Honey Badger has been one of my all time favorite players from LSU all the way into the league. I love him. He's overly aggressive at times, and I think we could take advantage of his overly aggressiveness.

But Daniel Soarson, he's the guy that after I watched tape that I felt like we could pin the tail on the donkey on number forty nine on Sorenson, and I'm looking for Dalton Scholtz, who man, by the way, Dalton Sholtz ran an out and up last week, that was textbook, I mean, and Dak missed him on that throw. But those are the kinds of things that I feel like we could take advantage of, especially when they go nickel.

And I think right now one Thornhill has replaced Daniel Sorenson, so they pretty much rank him in in nickel situations. But again, I just think that for our offense, you just come on, man, pick a position, and I think we can exploit that. But I think no matter what they do, they have got to find an answer for what Amari Cooper can do to this defense. They can't. They can't double team everybody. Y'all buying this three game stress that they're on right now. They have not allowed

more than twenty points in the last three games. Now. One game was to the Giants, one game was against Green Bay without Rogers, and then fourteen points to Vegas Vegas Raiders. So it's an average of like fifteen points game they're in this last three games. And I know, look Carolina, when we played Carolina, it was three games of great play by Carolina and then but they hadn't played the Cowboys, so we'll see. I think you're right. Like they got some strong in the middle guys. Hitchens,

Bolton's linebacker makes place. Um oh, he was so good Frisco lone star guy here too, is he really? Yeah? Bolton went to lone star. Good young player. I'm with Isaiah though in terms of the corners, Like I think just watching back that Raider game, they tried to spread out. When they spread out their defense put they put Waller out wide, they hit him crossers and stuff over the middle. So I think you kind of stretch out their safeties and stuff like that with this is a this is

an offense that can do that. We have a problem with the tight end. Yeah, So I think that's one area to watch. And obviously, like you said, they'll try to get the running game going for sure, especially in this road environment, trying to calm down the crowd a little bit because it's gonna be loud. So I'm looking at PF and of course PFF's always right whenever it

agrees with me. But the out of the base defense for the Chiefs, and they run that four three base for the most part, there were only three players in the top fifty of their position grade wise this year, and that's Timon, Matthew want Thornhill, and then Jones off of the defensive line. But when they go to Nickel, it's a much better look. So you're probably gonna see a ton of nickel. That's what they want to run out of. It's what they run out of the majority

of the time. It's what the Cowboys have gone up against pretty much the majority of the time this year. So I'm interested to see it. I think Finton's having a good year as well. He's been limited in staff, but he's had really good snaps. I'm interested to see if they use him in a couple more situations at like that. But man, I don't think of it as as looking at it and saying kind of like how we did going into Carolina, of like, they haven't played

anybody there, but they're a really good defense. I think this is kind of a little bit in between. They've played a couple of people, But I don't think they're they're a bad defense. They're not, and I only and their corners are good Sneed's good too good. You're trying to look at they're young back there, and the Cowboys are so good on their perimeter. So if that's one area every week, really you look at and say they

should be able to win. You know, you mentioned we mentioned in this yesterday, but two high safeties for the Cowboys potentially against their offense. Do you expect too high against the Cowboys offense this week? I think that you have to. I think both of these offenses you have to take the ben but don't break approach. You can't

give up big plays either one of these teams. I mean it's gonna be a headache from both defensive coordinators trying to try to wrangle up either one of these teams as that's the best approach if you if you go single high, you're going to give up a big play, and a big play is what separates this game. You can have sixty snaps in the game and if you've got three breakout plays that changes the whole the whole

tide of the game. You could be good for you know, for fifty plus snaps, but those those handful of plays, you know, can kill you. So that's the type of game that we're getting involved with on both sides. Both teams have to deal with it. Yeah, Oh man, and it's the flexibility of Tyrann Matthew and his ability to play at close to the line of scrimmage. The honey

Badger is man. He's special. He don't care. He's a small he's small in stature, but he will stick his nose up there in there and he makes life hell for you, especially when you cannot establish your running game and you're tilting your hand that, oh, this is a passage. He will They will send him on the blitz and

Spagnola does not have a problem with blitzing. And I think that's the one thing that I feel so much more comfortable about, is them trying to blitz Dak and you know, relegate guys to the front of our offensive line. We have to win this in the trenches. That is a must. We have to win in the trenches. I think he's going to want to blitz Dak. That's I wonder if he's not going to change his colors for us. Yeah.

I do think having Ingram now in the lineup for a couple of games changes them a little bit, gives him another just a rotation piece. Yeah, and a guy that you know, just adds more versatility because they move him around and man, he delivered a thump in the run game against Vegas. You know, as I was talking about like being physical and stuff like that adds. That's a physical element that's added to their defense now. And so yeah, it becomes more important whether Tyran plays in

this game or not. I'm mad at Ingram for that because he hit Josh Jones or Josh Jacobs and that's my running. It was all Jacobs, that's right. Yeah? Percentage wise? How percentage wise? Just give me a percentage, p Smith. I'm Tyring Smith. Come on, just give me a percentage just to make us feel better or worse. Uh, I'm gonna go fifty fifty. Oh, don't talk me right, man, seriously, come and give me something. It's earlier in the week. I will. I always say, tell me after Thursday what

he did in practice, and then I'll feel better. So tomorrow we will, first thing in the morning, First thing in the morning. Yeah, I got what's the percentage? What's it looked like? Um? The one thing I do want to bring up as our third down percentage, Okay, something that we have to improve on right now. We're at forty five percent um on third down and this is a game. We obviously, no, we can't. We can't get these boys, get these boys the ball back. We don't

want to. We want to limit the amount of times they get the ball in their hands. So on third day, we got to keep these chains moving. So you know, take this point. We gotta get this running game going.

We have to get this running game going, because we cannot be delegated just sitting back and throwing the ball, even though we can, even though we can, we want to make sure that we have a equal opportunal type offense in terms of being able to run and be able to run it when we want to, and be able to throw it when we want to keep these guys off balance. But we have to turn that percentage up. I think in this game we got to be over sixty percent on third down in order to lift their opportunities.

We're just waiting no fourth down anyway. True. True, it would it surprised you to say that the Cowboys had the fifth highest third down percentage? True, Man, that doesn't that doesn't matter. I throw that out the window. I'm talking about you gotta. I don't care what everybody else in the league is doing in this game. In this game. You've got to be bad. You've got to be better. The chance. Sorry, you know, the penalties, the holy penalties. You can't have it this week. Third you can't get

into second and twenty and all that. You know you can't. And Denver, that was a problem. You could not convert because you were so back behind the chains. You had so many long situations. And it hurts you, Atlanta, you played, you didn't even have. You probably had three third downs in the entire game, and they all came in the second half because the way you're the football and the way you kind of put it on them early. So I don't know if you can really take that game

into it. And I think this is gonna be our greatest challenge. And I talk about emotional intelligence. I think this is gonna be our greatest challenge in terms of that. And we've had some issues with that this year. We have had some issues with that this year. Casey had a few. I think a Brown had one. There's been a couple of cases where our guys are kind of getting back and forth of mouth and pushing in all that jazz. I'm I believe this is going to be

that type of game. I think the honey Badger is going to come in there talking mess. I think the environment is going to be crazy for that too, Yeah, I mean, but I mean, I think that environment is gonna be crazy. I think obviously we know it's gonna be loud, it's gonna be crazy, it's gonna be primetime television. Guys gonna be flying around hidden. These are two offenses that feel like they can't be stopped in the defenses.

They both feel disrespected because nobody's talking about their ability to stop anybody, and and they're at their home. So I think that we can expect these guys to try to get the Cowboys out of their mental state, the right mindset, because they know that if they get him in Thirtain loans in against their ability to be able

to try to convert something. So I caution us, in terms of our emotional intelling, just to be able to just remain sound, remain within yourself, stick with the game plan, ignore the noise, and go ahead and push forward because they're gonna try to get you off your game real quickly. Before we take our second break, which of the games that the Cowboys have played so far this season, have

you been tested the most in that regard. I think the first one that comes to mind is New England, but there have there been any other ones like that. Trying to think of just one game off the back, there's one. I just can't think which one it was. Um you're talking about as far as tested from a mental capacity, from a game discipline, I could see that. Yeah, just from discipline standpoint, Yeah, they're the champs. They come in. I mean it's they let it hang. They hate the champy.

They got the banner going up, you know, I mean, it didn't get in better than that. These guys they got to ask the grind with the whole league because they felt like they got embarrassed on national during the Super Bowl. So you know, it doesn't surprise me. Like you said, Tyrn Matthew, all of those guys are gonna be chirping, and there's only one way to handle a chirping bosom in the mow. I like that. I like that all right. When we come back here on talking cowboys,

what are we talking about? What we're talking about, Kellen scheme, scorched Earth? Are we going scorched turfs? Are we going conservative to keep the defense at day We'll talk about it next, I'm talking Cowboys. Hi, I'm Clint Tillison with and I'm Jay Nobachek, and we're both with Turf, the official tractor provider of the Dallas Cowboys. So if you need a tractor to bail some hey a'm more to cut some grass, or a gator to get some chores done, get a John dere at United Agin Turf and then

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home or you're cheering in the stands. With lenses, you can see every exciting play book an appointment at your local or experts and see what Selor can do for you. See more, do more. That's a new one. I like it. The camera was well done. Yeah, the camera was like trying to focus back and forth. Switch. No, it was good. It was funny because the Eslar lenses are all always clear. They're always crisp, even more so than an HD cameram. I can't see without them. No, They're fantastic. And those

are transitional too. And I'm always jealous whenever I told you this in the parking lot the other day at North Texas, we were walking to the stadium for our game, and he goes, did you grab your sunglasses? And I was like no, And I was like, I would ask you if you grabbed yours, But they're the same thing as what you're actually But you know what, you have the opportunity. The Esselor people made the offer. They asked me if I want everybody, hey, peek, quick question, have

you gone? I have not yet? Kids, man, get out of here, just no leave, okay, you know we haven't kindly leave, sir. What happened when we talked this is the battle of the forty million dollars per year quarterback. Yeah, it sure is a lot of money in the backfield. Only three quarterbacks getting paid forty million dollars a year. It's a caliber collision game. Get money, get that bank, and then keep them safe. We talked about that on

Media mass yesterday. How I had thought about it either, But it's like nobody even talks about Dak's contract anymore. And because they can, and the value did he is he worth it? And all this stuff. I mean, I think we have the answer resounding yes the way they went away pretty fast, didn't it? Did it did? Thank goodness. I was never on that fence. But like, because we all wanted to pay him, yeah, we all wanted it

to be an extension. I don't think there was any conflict on this show about getting Dak Prescott signed up. And honestly, if you cover this team, I don't know how you could be outside of that. I mean, knowing what he brings to the table and things of the sort. Even as a fan, A lot of fans were against it. Fine, I get out there's a little bit of a riff there, But I really the more you look at it, the more it makes sense. Steve Dennis brought up a good

point on that show. I mean, there's about six teams you feel like can really win it this year, and it's because of the quarterback play, and the Cowboys are in that group. Oh that's so fun to hear. I love it all right, final couple minutes, kelln Moore, is there a chance to be conservative here? Kind of play

things safe? What Dak Prescott run the offense, manage things and just you know, make sure your defense wins the field position battle and you're not pushed up against the wall, you're not necessarily giving the ball back or gentlemen, is there a chance to go scorched earth and go super aggressive early? Throw Knima Governed out in the slot, throw Zeke out in the slot, get somebody in motion, do a reverse. I don't even care. How does kelln Moore attack this game plan? I'm wow, you say it was

gonna be a change. I see it. You know, like I'm gonna say this too before before I make my point. Yeah, I'm a big fan of Eric being to me, I feel like this man should have been a head coach a long time ago. I do not like the fact that when Kansas City starts to struggle, everyone starts saying, well, maybe Read and be Enemy are not on the same page. You were not saying that when they were going to Super Bowl, so stop it. And so for the matchup of offensive minds, you got a lot of genius people

calling offenses on Sunday in this game. And I just feel like Kellen Moore is ascending at such a fast rate that people are not even able to recognize his genius. We talk about the formations for Kansas City and the different things that they do, like how do you how do you prepare for an offense that's running every formation twelve eleven, all of those things. It's really hard to game plan for what Kellen Moore is doing because each

and every week he's expanding on his play calling. And so when I think about this game, obviously you don't want to hang your offense your defense out to dry. You definitely cannot have a repeat of the Denver game where you had less than twenty minutes with the ball. So that's the only reason why I say field position is going to be important. Taking somebody said of taking the crowd out of it with the run the game, that's gonna be important as well. But I think we

put our foot on the neck as well. I think we go right back to firing. You know, we go right back to it. What's good? Are you okay with them going for it on fourth down like they have been in the past. Absolutely, don't change the thing. Keeps, don't chant against putting your defense in a potentially bad position. Yes, that's kind of what the No, it really the conversation. It could definitely put you in a bad and in a way, it's contradictory to say that. But I want

to see this Cowboys teams be be aggressive. And I think Mike McCarthy has continued win, lose a draw, and whether he goes oh for four on fourth downs or three for one on fourth downs, he's continuing to be aggressive. And that's what I'm That's all I'm looking for is don't change up your spots now. Don't get to that big time game like we did. Like look, it took Tom Brady, what was it admitted as something to to get that drive. Let's not pull off the gas on them.

Let's let's keep it down. Let's let's just win this one. Yeah, to your question, is it I have a question. Is it harder to do that and be that aggressive on fourth down in a crowd environment like this on the road, do you worry about pre snap communication, penalties and guys on the same page. No, because so much of the

game is nonverbal. Now, okay, I think I think there's more that's that's kind of always kind of laugh because no disrespect to to fans, but the crowd always gets loud when you break the huddle, Like that's that's hard the communication. The communication is already taking place, you know, So like if you want to be loud, and I Shouldn't'm not, well, they're not listening to us. Hopefully, be loud.

I mean you know what I'm saying, Like, be loud, prefect Cowboys fans, whatever we have our next home home game, be be loud in the huddle. Like when when when those teams come to the huddle, be loud, because that's when you're communicating to the office on line. That's when you're communicating to everybody else to know what they're supposed to do. Now, at the line of scrimmage, you're making alterations.

But if I'm a quarterback, I'm coming up and I'm tapping my center and I'm communicating directly in my receivers. It's all nonverbals anyway, It's all hands signals and nonverbals. So to your point, no, I don't. I don't foresee that be an issue. I just I am concerned though about us being as aggressive as we've been and not being successful with it. Now we're given kanc to the ball on their side of the fifty most likely. Yeah,

that's a fair concern. No, it is, And I'm starting to think about the next two or two of the next three weeks. I mean, of course you've got the Thanksgiving game here, but really, the two next road games you have as a ball club are two of the tougher places to play in the league, in the Superdome and Arrowhead. I mean, those are the next two road

games you've got. So this is an opportunity not only to win this game and to keep the pedal down, but to also learn and to pick up different tendencies from your team that you could take into the postseason as well, to take into the playoffs. Because if you have to go to LAMBA, hopefully it's home field, and the road to the Super Bowls through At and T Stadium.

I'm not saying that, but if you have to go on the road and you have to play at Lambo, you have to play it so far to play at Arizona, You've already You've done it already, You've already beaten teams like Arrowhead and at that's the super Dome. You are number one and scoring, you are the number one offense. You have nothing to You got the best hand, you know, don't second guess it when you got it, play it,

you know, And this isn't the time. We don't have to come up against Kansas City and start second guessing what we do. Be aggressive, you know, if we want to put the AFCO notice, put them on notice and beat the best that's out there. I believe that's that's the game plan, and I believe that this is the

way that this team is going to approach it. And the last time I heard this this morning on our flagstips stationed the fan was the last time that the Dallas Cowboys were number one and scoring and total offense was in nineteen ninety five, and ninety five was a good year. Yeah they want something that, Yeah, yeah, I love that. And I think the last time that they led it at the end of the season like that was seventy one when they wanted it the first time

with Roger. So, I mean there's a lot of things going on. Oh gosh, all right, that's a good one to end on. Thanks for joining us here. I'm Talking Cowboys tomorrow. We've got a say it with your chest Friday. TV host, radio host, podcast host Trey Wingo is going to join us tomorrow to talk a little bit of cowboys and chiefs here on Talking Cowboy. He's a long time Cowboys fan, lifelong Cowboys fan. He's excited to talk about he's in Vegas right now actually, so he's got

some maybe some insight there as well. We'll talk about DraftKings and then of course we'll give our predictions. Make sure and give us a call around nine thirty ish eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven to be a part of our pick him segment. Well, I've updated standings and everything when we come back tomorrow, but for this Thursday edition, Chris Beam, Rob Phillips, isaiahs Dan Back, heck My Harrison, I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long.

We'll see you tomorrow on Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys football club,