Talkin' Cowboys: The Pollard Factor

victory Monday edition of Talking Cowboys. Here from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star in Frisco to the Dallas Cowboys take down the San Francisco forty nine miners for win number five of the twenty twenty campaign forty one thirty three the final score from AT and T Stadium last night. We're gonna break it all down for you here on Talking Cowboys, presented as always by the great folks over at Geiko. Kyle Yeoman's with you alongside

our resident Super Bowl Champion Isaiah dan Bank. We've got Cowboys insider Rob Phillips down to the bottom right hand corner and professional football analyst heck My Harrison, and along with your title Heck Mom, I'm gonna go with professional tree decorator because he's got his battery paid off and in the left side of his screen it's a little bit bigger than your up down. Heck hey, d First of us, Kyle, do not get me in any trouble

with that title. Okay, because all of the credit to decorating this tree belongs to my daughter Kia and my wife Nicky, So this is this is their creation. They did this, so fantastic kudoson my daughter kid and wife. Looks like Rockefeller Center back there. It looks like time to where I love it. You know, Kia is the real star of the family. But also not to mention, I mean, Isaiah, you're pretty much a star for getting Heckma, you said those are Bluetooth lights. You like, you're working

with Bluetooth on this tree. So how does that? Hero? I you can hook this thing up, it goes, you can sync it with your phone, and you could play it with your music. So I was thinking, you know, having a little little John Christmas going this weekend, So just no, it's all Isaiah lost the bat, he shipped the tree, and Heckma put it up this weekend. Looks fantastic, buddy, you look very festive here in the week of Christmas.

Happy holidays to everyone, no matter what you celebrate. But yeah, Rob, the Cowboys are celebrating a win yesterday and an opportunity to stay alive in the playoff hunt at least for another week because Washington lost to Seattle. Big time week coming up this week in really how things are going to shape out in the NFC East. But Rob, what did you think about yesterday's matchup with the forty nine ers and how the Cowboys came out on top. You're

telling me that game got flexed? Really a game that ends on a kickoff on side return for a touchdown and then a hail married. NFL decided to flex that game. For shame, NBC, for shame, you missed a good one between two teams that are that are really struggling. And that's why, I mean, half of us picked the Cowboys, half of us picked the forty nine ers on Friday, and I think it's because they're in a lot of

ways the same team. They're flawed, they have injuries, they have problems taking care of the ball, and that was the difference. Cowboys now with a plus seven turnover ratio in their last two wins, a two game winning streak, now first of the season. I saw on last week the New York Times statistical model, So the Cowboys have a one percent chance to win the NFC East. I apparently that has risen to five percent, So it's still a chance. You're telling me there is a chance fer

five percent. You know, I would disagree with the computer on that one, and I'm not a mathematician by any means. But the fact that you have Washington going up against Carolina this week, which is a winnable game for Washington, but it's very losable, especially if Alex Smith is unavailable, and then the Cowboys somehow, if they can take down the Eagles, I think the Cowboys are sitting in the driver's seat going into week seventeen. But we can talk

about that a little bit later. On Isaiah, what do you think about this offense yesterday and kind of how Andy Dalton and that offensive line responded whenever San Francisco brought the heat, especially at the back half of the second quarter and then right after that halftime break. Yeah, I feel good about it, and I just want to acknowledge the fact that you know, I know. Heck, we just alluded to you prior to us coming on the show the cow that you were listening to the E

forty versus two short verses. You know, obviously you were listening to E four O, but the Cowboys were listening to that forty burger because because they got that forty on there. Um. But no, these guys played pretty dog on well, they played pretty well. Man. I'm actually proud of these guys. They've come a long way. Um. You know, this chemistry has continued to build every week. We've had

some form of adversity every every week. We I don't think since week one, I don't think we've had our entire squad squadron out there, um as I as I've been watching The Mandalorian. But yeah, I think you know, obviously this is we going to this week and Zeke's out and Paula has to step up. You know, he gets sixty some yards Russian sixty some of yards receiving.

You know, Kellen Moore continues to expand his repertoire. He brought out some stops that I haven't seen him do this year, um, that were within the frame of our offense. It wasn't no crazy reverses and reverse passes and all that. It was just some misdirection. And you know, he he pretty much been watching the film against our defense because he did exactly, um what works against our defense against against this this team. So very proud of these guys, man.

You know, they did what they what was required to get a win. And not only that, these guys played complimentary football. I know we talked about it in the postgame show yesterday called but complimentary football. Your defense gets you the ball, guess what, go score? Right now, that's a give and take relationship. Nobody who just wants to be a relationship where you're just receiving. No, that's a

tough relationship for me. You know, look, I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna be the debbut downer for this victory because we got one, right, we got this victory. It was tough. There were a lot of momentum swings in this game. Offensively, I just liked the fact that that, you know, we were sitting in position a lot of times just with a short field, and it made it

easy for us to punch it in. There were times where Andy Dalton was plot on with his throws, and then there were other times where the running game wasn't there, and I think that's when Kellen Moore on some plays had to go into his bag and try and pull out a few gadget plays. But luckily those didn't cost us defensively. Who are these guys? I mean, four turnovers yesterday and we've been talking about getting turnovers all season long, and that just hadn't been something that this Cowboys team

has been able to manufacture. But you see how easy, how easy it makes the game flow for your offense when you can set them up in prime position. You have a free safety that breaks on a ball. How about that, you know to get an interception and Tank Lawrence, Tank Lawrence played his tail off yesterday. And so kudos to the defense. That a lot of things that obviously we could scrutinize or criticize them for, but look, they mitigated a lot of that stuff and pulled out a

great victory. And whenever it comes to the defense, you have the four turnovers and two fumbles in the first half, one on special teams won on the defensive side of the football. Then you had the two picks in the fourth quarter, one to Anthony Brown his first interception of twenty twenty and his fifth of his career. Then you had Donovan Wilson, like you said, breaking toward the football. And I asked Stephen Jones earlier this week, and I asked him, do you feel like you've found that guy?

Do you feel like Donovan Wilson is finally that safety that you've been waiting for, the hard hitter, the guy who forces turnovers, and he forces another one in his first game back after missing a couple due to injury. And he looked fine out there. I really did. I thought he looked fantastic. And then you have the secondary coming in and getting some reinforcements. Cheeta Woozier's back, Trayvon Digs's back, Anthony Brown is back, and all four of

those top corners are available at one point in the game. Now, you lost Xavier Woods later on in the matchup yesterday, But with that being said, you had six of your your dbs. You had your top six dbs finally available. Rob How huge is that for the defense, especially when you're trying to evaluate what that secondary is going to look like going into next season. Oh, it's absolutely huge.

I mean, that's A that's a continuity problem on this roster that we probably haven't talked abou enough this year. We've talked about missing Dak, we talked about the offensive line, We've talked about um injuries to the defensive line and moving on from players on the defensive line, but not

not the secondary as much. And I think, uh, you know, you watched Jordan Lewis, who's been kind of the constant the last few games he's been healthy, and uh, he put together another solid performance in terms of just being around the football, stopping the run, sack. Uh, he's been solid and pass coverage. So I think, you know, he's one of several guys going into his contract year and I think he's playing well as the season ends. But yeah, absolutely,

continuity has been big. Look, they they gave up four hundred and fifty eight yards that is that is the three points. That's the second highest total that they've allowed this year. Uh, you know in San Franco had one hundred and fifty rushing yards. That was kind of to be expected. Wasn't three hundred, So that that was progress, but you know that's progress. They cut, they cut in half, they cut in half, So yes, they look, you can you've got you can give up yardage, you know that

that's gonna happen. But if you can get takeaways, that's how you win games. I mean, Mike McCarthy's not a big stats guy, but turnovers are the leading stat for him. That's what the size football games. He's not wrong. Cowboys had eleven takeaways in the first twelve games. They've got seven in the last two games. It's not a coincidence that they won two games in a row, not at all. And good thing that McCarthy isn't a stats guy, because if you look at the offensive stats, they weren't very good.

I mean, two hundred and ninety one yards on fifty eight plays and you had only the eighty seven on the ground two oh nine for Andy Daltson yesterday. So offensively the stats weren't there. You weren't very good on third down six of fifteen, which is forty percent, so

you have to see some improvement throughout. But you didn't really need this offense heckma I mean, whenever you came to the turnovers, it ended up pushing them into position to where they took advantage twenty four points of their forty one came off of turnovers and they took it vantage whenever they needed to. Yeah, and a defensive effort like that, it covers up in all of your inadequacies and that's what it did for the offense. And you know, look, there's still a lot of things that we have to

work on. Red zone efficiency still has to be a sticking point for this offense. Like you said, third downs, we were not very good on third downs, but when you get the ball on the twenty two, you know, it makes it makes it a lot shorter. But also Andy Dalton did some really good things that you talk about a drive in the third quarter where he goes fifteen play seventy three yards and it was it was the drive that he had to put together to get

this victory. Kudos to our defensive front to front seven. It makes it so much easier when your guys are putting pressure on the quarterback and forcing him into Aaron throws. I mean Mullin as a quarterback man, he was staring it down and just making it easy for our guys on the back half as well. So all things being considered, you talk about the continuity of our secondary and guys having to play finally having everybody healthy. I think that

meant a lot to see those guys playing together. But also Isaiah said this as a sticking point for a lot of these guys that are in their contract years that the eye and the sky don't lie and they can't just lay down. They're playing for their careers and you see guys like Cheeto Jordan Lewis playing just like that. You know, I'm gonna put that tape out there so that everyone sees that I want to be in this league,

and I really was. I was proud of guys playing up to their potential we've been waiting on and if we finally saw it. Isaiah, Yeah, I mean they did with what was required to them. I mean that's pretty much at the end of the day. Do they need to play better, Absolutely, Could they have had more yards? Absolutely? Could we have you know, not allowed as many yards? Absolutely?

Every everything you can say, absolutely too, you know, But at the end of the day, it's about getting a w and and once you get the dumb now you can start critiquing and going over all the things that they need to improve upon. But um, everything's everything that needs to be said. I think it's being a sad Man, those guys there, Um, everybody, everybody stepped their game up, you know, as Heckma talked about, you know, these guys

are playing for their careers very very much. So regardless of what was going on with your team, you got to stand up for yourself and then yourself turns into multiple guys doing it, and then all of a sudden the team plays better. So um, that's what we saw yesterday. And and the thing about the takeaways, you know the Cincinnati game, you know, you could all if you're a skeptic, you can argue Cincinnati gave him those turnovers. You know, they were just careless with the ball. You know, DeMarcus

Lawrence made that turnover happen. Yes, Yes, same thing with Lawrence Armstrong. Those two picks in the fourth quarter were you know, reading and reacting and making a play on the ball and being instinctive. And so that's that's not pure luck, you know. And so that's that's the sign

of a defense that is growing. Whether that's that makes you makes you happy as a fan with the draft pick or not, you know, that is that's right, rob it And I think for our defense, just seeing them do that makes me believe that they are more comfortable with the scheme they're learning. I mean, it's it's one thing to read and react, but if you're you're back there and you're guessing on where you need to be in, the communication level isn't there. Guys couldn't do that before.

It just feels like they've simplified their coverages. And we talked about high school coverages like this is just court. It's just a cover for right. It's the same, it's the same, it's the same, and guys just hadn't been able to master it. But the communication hadn't been there. When you see guys like Anthony Brown break in front of a receiver to get an interception, that's just him being comfortable and knowing I'm in zone and I have

a guy behind me, you know. And just in the same thing with Donovan Wilson, he's understanding the cover so he can break on the ball. I love that as well. But I have to say Andy Dalton, for just like a split second there, man, I was having I was having delusions of Andy backing the day he had his red rifle going there for a quick second, and they, you know, they want to call him a bus driver,

just you know, facilitator of the office. But he was taking with that this was given him, which was a lot, and he was always making the good REASO kuldos to Andy Dalton for doing that. Well, you saw in this game what a true backup quarterback in the NFL looks like and what a true starter in the NFL looks like. Now, there are a lot of people that aren't very happy with Andy Dalton because of the losses, because of the interceptions early in his Cowboys tenure. But whenever you look

at Andy Dalton, he's not Dak Prescott. I mean, you're talking about an elite quarterback, or at least one that's borderline league for some people. Nobody can argue that he's borderline A league. I think he's elite. But then you have Andy Dalton, who is a true starter in the NFL. Then you have Nick Mullins. Nick Mullins is a backup quarterback. CJ. Bethard is a backup quarterback. Andy Dalton is not that.

And you saw that yesterday. And the one turning point I think in the game was in the third quarter. It was twenty four twenty four. San Francisco had rattled off ten straight points and it was third down. Andy Dalton was under pressure, rolled out to his right and had to escape pressure. It wasn't a designed bootleg by any means, but he looks down field, tows the sideline and delivers a dime into a very tight hole to

Cede Lamb for forty five yards. The next play, Dalton Schultz bings and bangs his way into the end zone from twelve yards out. So that was the turning point in the game because at that point San Francisco had all the momentum, they had the ten points, they were finding a way to get to this offensive line. They were bringing the pressure and they said, beat us, beat us over the top. And that's what Andy Dalton did.

He towed that sideline and was able to deliver a ball that not any of those backup quarterbacks throughout the NFL could have potentially done. And that was what ended up I think, turning the football game around and making San Francisco second guests themselves whenever it comes to blitzing Andy Dalton and trying to blitz this cowboy's offense. Rob Yeah, the chunk play that you're right, that was huge, and

that was a dime. And you know, one thing about the offense, the takeaways for the defense were so big because offensively, Cowboys really needed it. I mean, they had a hard time. I'm getting things going. I thought, you know what you guys are saying about Andy's exactly right. He's doing exactly what he needs to do as as coming in as the backup. Don't turn it over, be solid, be protective of the football. But they they they've struggled with the chunk plays recently, and I think they only

had three in the game. Obviously, Tony Pollard's run at the end was was awesome. Uh that that was that was big time and that that sealed the game. But I think the other two were to CD one one that you reference Kyle, and then the other one I think was when he kind of chucked it up to CD on the free play on the false start. So, um, you know, they're they're still having trouble running the ball. M. Whether it's Zeke, whether it's Tony Pollard. I think some

of it is starts up front. M. But you know, when you've got, like you said, a luxury to have a backup quarterback like Andy who can make that play when the defense gives it to you. And when your defense is balling out like that in terms of giving you the ball with short fields, sometimes all you need is a couple of chunk plays. You can win the game that way. Isaiah, Yeah, I mean yeah, I feel like I feel like I would just say the same thing, man. I mean, these guys are any dogs doing what's what's

asked of them. You know, here, don't we don't do anything miraculous. You know, they're making plays when they need to. The chemistry is improving every week. Confidence is building. Um, these guys are getting more familiarized on the defensiety of the ball. That's why you saw them start taking more risk. You know, Donofan Wilson obviously coming up getting an interception, coming up almost getting a second interception. You know, he really could have walked away. They were there with two

of those things. Um, all the dbs being back, you know, the continuity that they have, the trust, that's probably a word that needs to be utilized. They're starting to trust each other, whether it's the scheme, they're getting more confident within the scheme, or whether they actually know that that each other is gonna be where they're supposed to be regardless, it's it's resulting in better play um and then deepness aligned. Those guys are starting to starting to come together as well.

Big Gallamoor came out there and blew some things up that that was very important for an inside presence. Um. You know, Crawford is being where he's supposed to be, d Laws coming off playing like he's supposed to play, you know, the guy that we paid him to be. So it's coming together, man, it's coming together, and it's coming together at the right time. Now, he's got to keep taking care of business every every play, every game.

And I hope that hope that a Washington laser egg. Yeah, I mean, you gotta hope for some help at this point. But whenever the Washington football team goes out with Dwayne Haskins, they're not the same team that if they had Alex Smith out there. So things can happen this week against Carolina, and things can happen for the Cowboys against Philadelphia, even though Philly seems like they have a quarterback now and that's going to be a tough task for the Cowboys

coming up. But we'll preview that game throughout the week. We've got shows all the way up until Thursday. But when we come back here on Talking Cowboys. Was this kind of a smoke screen game for Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott? What is going on in terms of the running back game? And how can the Cowboys fair without twenty one in the future. Should that be a situation. We'll talk about that next when we come back on

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Switch to a T and T five G. It's not complicated. Five G requires compatible plant may not be in your area. See att dot com slash five G for you for details. To talk in Cowboys back here on Talking Cowboys, it's a Victory Monday edition from the Star in Frisco. And whether you're watching from home or you're cheering in the dance with lindsays, you'll see every exciting play. You'll see all the beautiful lights on heck Ma Harrison's tree, but you'll also see the experts and do what Selor could

do for you. See more, Do more Esselor here on Talking Cowboys as Heckma's got. I love that tree, Heckma, I think it fits it just it's woid. And then it had to come from overseas man from they had this thing back, So it's a yeah, you know where I got it from Christmas vacation. It's a beaute Clark, It's a beauty fred Ze good reference. I like it. But heck Ma Harrison, Rob Phillips Isaiah Stanback are resident Super Bowl Champion and also resident gift giver here on

this on this edition of Talking Cowboys. Heck Ma Harrison and the Harrison families some holiday cheer. I'm Kyle Yeoman's driving the bus. But we brought up Tony Pollard in the last segment. And Tony had a good game yesterday. Whenever you look at the stats in the final final totals for Tony Pollard sixty nine yards on twelve carries. He had that long run of forty later in the game,

two touchdowns, both on the ground. He also had six receptions for sixty three yards on nine targets, and out of those sixty three yards, thirty of them came on one reception. But Isaiah, whenever it comes to Tony Pollard, and there's so many different ways to think about this, because Ezekiel Elliott was inactive for the first time in his career. Now he had some suspension stuff earlier, but in terms of just being a straight healthy or I

guess health inactive. He was inactive yesterday because of the calf injury. But a lot of people wanted to see Tony Pollard. What did you see and how he performed yesterday? I thought he did pretty well. I think Kella Moore was trying to ensure that he got involved in his game and involved early. I think that they the way in which you typically would would use him when he was a two headed monster with with Zeke. I think you just saw that in just full form yesterday. They

tried to feed on the ball. They try to take him inside, they try to take them outside. They were really trying to find some gaps. You didn't they the White Nines didn't present the gaps that we thought they would, you know, but they did find a way to pass the ball to him, and that's where he's sometimes most effective. You know, You've seen a lot of times he's lined

up in the backfield. They motioned him all the way out, you know, to a wide split receiver position, um and it really declared the fact that they were in zone. So I'm sure it cleared up a lot of things for Andy Dalton as well. But they were just very diverse in their in their offerings and the presentation in their in their form in which they utilized Pollard. I thought it was it was pretty effective. Rob. Yeah, I mean,

he it's funny, you know, the six catches. I think going into the game two years in the league now, I think his high was four catches in the game, and when they drafted him, we kept hearing about, you know what he can do as a receiver? Can he do in space? And after seeing that yesterday, especially like Isaiah mentioned early in the game, I'm thinking, what, let's see more of that? Why haven't we seen more of that?

You know, I get I give Kellen Moore a lot of credit for I think Heckman mentioned this in the first segment the red zone. I think they're three for three in the red zone. He said last week, I've got to be better calling plays in the red zone, and he got creative and they were able to cash in using Tony as a runner down there. But we saw his full skill set on display, and I don't I don't view this as much of a Tony versus Zeke thing I wrote about this mid mid season. I

want to see both of them more. I think with dak out you've got to use your running backs more help out your quarterback, and I think he's proven he can help you in different ways now as as a pure running back back there before the forty yard run, you know eleven for twenty nine, you know eleven carries for twenty nine yards. So I think I think we're seeing, regardless of who's back there, they're missing some guys up front on the offensive line, and I think that's that's

impacting it. But you see his big playability at the end of the game. You know he can. He's always a threat to bust one and that's why he needs to play. Yeah, for the for the news, for the crowd, that's gonna be saying Zeko and all of that slow down gym shoes. Okay, that's not what's that's not what's going on. Because here's the thing, and Rob, you're exactly right. Before that forty yard run, he only had twenty twenty nine yards, So that was big for him in his

final numbers. But up until that point, guys are it was the perpetual ineptitude of our running game that you saw. We couldn't get anything going, and maybe it's because of the offensive line. Finally we get an opportunity to run that Tony polit shows his explosion for that forty yard game.

But still, you know, we're in a situation where we could not establish the running game at all, and it was not for the defense getting a short yardage like that, we might have been in trouble with trying to manufacture a long drives and so, you know, I appreciate what Tony Poler did. I think that his skill set as

a receiver is awful display. All this does for me is gives me the reassurance and Tony Pollard and his ability if ever, Zeke is inactive because of health, but I think that this gives us more of an incentive to make sure that we balance our running attack with Zeke and Tony Pollard. Gives you a big have a question,

go for it. Yes, I'm sorry, Carl. I was gonna say, I have a question for you guys, And I guess really for everybody out there, there's so much talk and so much pressure being applied to Zeke and now Tony Pollard, and everybody's like, oh, you know what he's got, he's getting paid this, or you know, we need to see more of this. What do people feel is more important? What do you guys feels more important? Which one has

the biggest effect on the run. Is it the running back or is it is it the blockers in front of the running back? The offensive line blockers? Yeahsive line. Yeah. So there's a lot of talk around Zeke and all Zeke's fell off and oh he's not as effective as he used to be, and be like, understand this, people, understand this. If if you're playing with your third string officsive line, and that third string officsive line is playing against the first string or even the second string office

a defensive line, guess what. The holes just aren't going to be there, right, They're not gonna I'm not gonna be as effective as a back because I don't have the holes that I had before. Right, So it doesn't matter if Zeke's in there. It doesn't matter if Poler's in there. I know we're talking about how Polar only had eleven carries, you know, twenty nine yards before before the big run. But the reality is, it doesn't matter

who you put back there. Okay, Kyle, can you get back there and put on a helmet right and put on his slurs and saying and be and try to hit the gap. I can put that gap anyway. You can try to. You're probably gonna butt fumble like they like the other guys did last week, you know. But the thing is, if the holes aren't there, you can't run. It doesn't matter how great of a running back that you have on your roster, so as much attention as being placed on these guys. That's why I say that.

You know, Kelly Moore did a heck of a job this week, and utilizing um Polar's assets and his abilities simply because hey, guess we're running into the back of guys is not going to work, right, So let's try this right, And let's try this and guess what. Pollard can also catch the ball, so let's put him out here, so let's utilize him in all these different ways because our office ave line honestly just isn't creating the same hole. I completely agree with him also defensive game, completely agree

with you here. I'm gonna stick with this really quickly, Heckman, because I want to add to what Isaiah just said. But Tony Pollard did exactly what you want Tony Pollard to do. That's exactly what you brought him into. Do you want him to run every once in a while then break a big play, right? His big playability is what makes Tony Pollard special, what allows him to make those big plays. He's done it with Zeke throughout his career. I mean, Zeke is the one that sets up the

big play for Tony Pollard. Zeke can break a big play every now and again. We've seen it throughout his career. The only argument that I think you have, Isaiah, whenever it comes to Ezekiel Elliott, it's not that he's a better football player than Tony Pollard. That's obvious. I think at least I think all four of us would agree Ezekiel Elliott is better than Tony Pollard. But whenever it comes to his contract, his contract is what tells him that he needs to be more elite and not just

a runner. He needs to be elite behind no matter who's blocking for him. And that's where I think the frustration comes from from Cowboys fans. And yes, we've talked about this before and I feel like it's a broken record, But it's a debate that's going to continue into the offseason because there's decisions that have to be made around that contract and where that salary cap is going to

be allocated. And Tony Pollard yesterday didn't really do a ton for my confidence in terms of how this team can't fare without Ezekiel Elliott because eleven carries for twenty nine yards before he broke the forty yard or at the end of the game, does not make me confident

in this running game. No matter if it's heck Ma Harrison and Rob Phillips blocking for Tony Pollard upfront, or if it's that the starting offensive line, You've got to be able to run more efficiently than eleven for twenty nine and they finally broke one right at the end,

You're absolutely great. But my question to you and everybody is, how can you if you're not a shifty back, right, if you're if you're not a if you're not a Sean McCoy, if you're not a Barry Standard, which is not one of these elusive backs, which is not what Zeke is, Right, how can you be exceptional if you don't have the holes to hit? Right? If you take if you take the fumbles out of Zeke's season this year, right,

I can answer to everybody's leaning at all. He's fumbling the ball, you have bad games, Okay, if you take the fumbles out, what do you expect him to do if there are any holes? He's not that type of back and people are asking, oh, well, why don't you pay him all that money because he always falls forward guys. He always files forward and he's a threat. He blocks,

He blocks really well. When the team's decide to blitz, right, I'm gonna blitz a little bit more, just like we saw yesterday, right the officer line did a good job for the most part. He only got sacked twice, I think Andy Dalton. But you blitz a little bit more when you know that that Zeke's not back there to fill the gap on that linebacker, that safety coming through

the hole. I'm gonna send my guys a few more times, because guess what, I might get home right, But when I have Poler back there or somebody else who's not as great as blocking, guess what, you know, I'm gonna send those guys. But when I see Zeke, when I see Zeke, it's just not worth it because we're probably not gonna get home. Right. So he helps you in the passing game in that regard. Maybe not certainly in the form of receptions, but in terms of protection, he

helps you. He helps Dak, he helps you know, Dalton, he helps all these guys whoever's in the dog on position, a quarterback, he helps him when it comes to running the ball. Zeke is gonna fall forward, He's gonna bush you in the mouth. Is no different than dog On Marshawn, My dog Marshawn. It was gonna be physical. You knew what you knew what you were getting into it. And when you played against Seattle back then, he was gonna

hit you in the mouth. Whether he got outside the tackles or not, you knew you're gonna have a hard time bringing him down, right, And that's what he brought to the game. That's what Zeke brings you the game, the physicality. He's not gonna be shifty, so stop expecting that from him. He's gonna shure up the fumbles. Of course, any running back he needs to do that. But let's stop that. Man. People need to stop talking about, Oh,

he's not as effective. No, he's not because he's playing with his third string guys, and let's andy and he's I don't think he's been healthy for a few weeks either. Heck, yeah, yeah, Kyle got Isaiah's blood pressure up right now, I've actually got one more thing to get his blood pressure up. Just one, just one more thing. You want to keep this going. How how much does the offensive line affect fumbles for Ezekiel Elliott. How much? How much does the

offensive line affect the fumbles? Because thing for Zeke's game dropping off in twenty twenty, he has fumbled the mention more twice as much more. I mentioned that I know you did, but I'm just saying, how does how does that? How do you? How do you correlate that? Whenever it comes to a ninety million dollars respect that you're paying to fall forward one yard? He gotta hold up, absolutely, So check me out. So let's freaking talk about it. Okay, So let's talk about I'm not I'm not. I'm not

somebody to plays glame anywhere. You guys know, I take full accountability for anything. I was saying, I'll stand behind everything. So Zeke fumbled the ball entirely too much this year, absolutely, and guess what, I guarantee you he'll figure that out. He has figured that out right, Since he had those issues, he hasn't fumbled anymore. He's human. Humans make mistakes, right, Humans make mistakes. I don't care how much youre getting paid.

Makes mistakes, Jeff, Jeff Jeff Bezos makes mistakes, right. Everybody makes mistakes, So let's not act like he's like, he's just super human. That's just not going to fumble the ball. He has to tidy those things up. There's aspects of his game that he has to improve upon. Can you believe that? Can you believe that he has to improve a certain aspects of his game? So, yes, he has to tighten that up, right, But he is still a

super effective running back. I don't care how much you're paying him, and know the office of lineman can't make him fumble, No, unless you's fumbling off somebody's but okay. But but what they can do is take it to the point where he's so frustrated with his inability to get holes and be able to get across the line of scrimmage to now he's doing things that are outside of himself. When he starts doing things that are outside

of himself, guess what. The ball security stops becoming as important as it once was, because now I'm trying to figure out a way to get across the line screws. I'm trying to figure out way to make a big play. So the things in which I used to focus on, I'm no order focusing on because I'm trying to make other things happen. So no they can't, but yes they do affect it because now he's doing things outside of himself. Yeah, talked in a while, So right now it's not but

it's hot right now. I like. I like it. But you know, I think what you're asking, and I think a lot of people when it comes down to Zeke, they are illusion football on football illusionists, right. You think that this guy is supposed to be the same guy that he was four years ago with that great offensive line behind. That's what no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, it's it's what it is is his inability to do all of the things that are in his wheelhouse to do because of the guys up front

not being able to get their job done. I promise you, Kyle this, this show wouldn't work as fluid as it does if you came up short on your job as the host, right, there would be some things that we wouldn't be able to do. That's the same thing for the offensive line. It's hand and glove. These things work together. So for you to not give credence to one thing and then spot and say, oh, you're making all this money to actually do this, it doesn't matter if he

doesn't have an offensive line to create those holes. It's hard for any running back to do that. Now as a wide receiver, if you have a quarterback that could just get back there and throw that thing eighty yards and you have a guy like Megatron or a fast guy's fast twitch guy that can go get the ball, that may be a whole another subject entirely. All right, when you look at Cooper his numbers, maybe you can

relate that to that. But to say that the money that Zeke is getting paid is in some way he's at fault for earning that contract and now he's not living up to it because he's running behind a third and fourth string offensive line, I think that's short sided. And I think for that man, I think it's people that don't really understand the game of football and what guys have to do in order to be good in

this league. And you know what the contract is, what it is, man Like, they were trying to win it, they were trying to win a super Bowl last year. They thought they had a super Bowl team. They needed to get him back into camp and they thought he earned it anyway, And I think I think it's been a weird year to evaluate him on a lot of levels. I'm not saying he's had a good year. By his standards, it hasn't been a good year. Look at his numbers, you look at his fumbles. You guys have covered that.

I would say I thought he ran the ball pretty well early in the season when most of the offense was healthy, but they got behind in games. Some of that was his fault with fumbles, and it was hard to really evaluate the running game as a whole. And then now there's so many guys missing, I think it's even harder to evaluate it. So I just I'm not

giving him a full mull again for this season. But I do think when they're healthy as a group next year, I think you're gonna see a better Zeke and I think you're going to see a better off and hopefully they're not turning it over and they've got some leads and that's when you can really bring his game into play instead of you know, you're trying to score fifty points to beat the Falcons like you did earlier in

the season. I agree, I think twenty twenty one will be a better year for Ezekiel Elliott, but it's it's tough right now because of the frustration with him, the frustrage ttration of course that it kind of built up from the fumbles and all of the things that go into that. But I like the debate, I really do. I think it is a debate because the contract is what it is. Like you said, Rob, it's signed, it's sealed, it's delivered, It's going to be there no matter what.

And sure there are some decisions down the road that could be made to maybe counteract that, but it's going to be tough to do that anyways. And then you have Ezekiel Elliott who can continue to evolve as a running back, and hopefully he evolves upwards rather than downwards. Whenever we come back and look at this later on, maybe into the off season and into twenty twenty one. But when we come back here on Talking Cowboys, how

are those playoff chances looking? Rob said five percent? But I want to see exactly what you guys think the percentage is in terms of the Cowboys making the playoffs as NFC East champions. We'll talk about it next when we come back on Talking Cowboys presented by Geico. We're back in a tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor pepper and cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor pepper and cream soda. Is he a new combo? Let's music to my ears? Okay, doctor music to my

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And what was really a fun game, Rob you mentioned earlier talking about shame on NBC if flexing that football game because it actually was a really fun game. I agree that they should have flexed it at that point, but I mean it ended up being a better game than what they got last night whenever Cleveland took down New York twenty to six, And that thus puts the Cowboys at second place in the NFC East at the moment, one game back of Washington with two games to play.

And I mentioned right up at the top of the show that Washington has Carolina than Philly the final two weeks of the season. The Cowboys have Philadelphia coming up this Sunday at three twenty five, and then they've got the Giants at noon kickoff back after the New year on January third. So there's a lot writing on this week. Week sixteen is most likely going to decide who wins this division between three teams, the Cowboys, the Washington Football team,

and the New York Giants. Maybe the Eagles if you really wanted to throw them in there, but I think they're pretty much out of it as well. But whenever you look at this division, Rob, you said five percent chance from the New York Times model, what would your percentage be for the Cowboys? Because if you beat Philly and somehow those Carolina Panthers go after and beat Washington, you are really sitting in a pretty good spot going

into the final week of the year. Yeah, I think the thing about it is I would put it about five percent. I think it's New York Times had one percent last week by their model, and it was ESPN five thirty eight with five percent today. So I put it about five percent. But so much has to go right for the Cowboys and Washington. You know, if they get Alex Smith back this week, if they get Antonio Gibson back, they get some guys back, kind of feel like they can beat Carolina. Now Carolina has lost some

I think three pretty close games in a row. They might be due. But the Cowboys just need so much help. And but the thing about it is, I think all three teams, even all four teams, if you want to count Philly, you know, you just know what, don't really know what you're gonna get from any of the four teams week to week, So you can't really feel confident

in anything. It doesn't seem like a great chance for the Cowboys still, but it does kind of feel like, you know that Cleveland Golden States series in twenty sixteen where it was like, you know, you know, Golden States up three one, and all of a sudden it's three two, and it's like, but yeah, you think they still got it, but you never know. You never know. No, don't, don't bring the trophy out yet, like in that series, Thanks Draymond for the Cowboys. They just have to have blinder zone.

They have to have blinder zone and control what they can control. There's so much going on and they don't know anything. They can't game plan for Charlotte, Well Carolina, for the Washington football team, they can't do any of that. So just getting to the game plan for Sunday against say a quarterback, that's gonna be, that's gonna have be. They're gonna be a threat for our defense. They just

have to control that. And so looking too far ahead and talking about the help and percentages and all that stuff, I'm sure this this team they won't accept it. And I'm sure coach Mike McCarthy won't accept any of it either. I'm gonna put minds at forty three percent. Wow, that's pretty three percent. Yeah, I actually feel pretty good about it, man. I think if Carolina is gonna get up for any game, what game would they get up for their former head coach,

their former head coach. So there's a lot more than just just a regular football game this coming week for them um obviously, and a thing for us. We've already faced a number of running quarterbacks this year, so I think we should feel pretty good about going against Jalen

hurts Um and then going into that last week. You know, you know, obviously we know what would be what would be writing on that game for us, But in terms of Washington, you know, Philadelphia will have an opportunity at that moment to to really just just kill their whole season. So I think they have two tough games. They have a rivalry game within their within their their coaches here coming up, and then they'll have it. They'll be playing against a team that is going to literally try to

send them packing, send them home packing. So they have two rough weeks, and we have two weeks in which we have nothing but motivation, nothing but motivation. It'll be tough to slow down Jalen Hurts. So this guy's not just a running quarterback anymore. I mean, he had three touchdown pass in the first half against Arizona to come back and get back within that game. I think that's gonna be a fun matchup. No, no disrespect, I'll dispect

by that. I'm talking about like Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray. We've already faced these guys right who have the ability to do both tomorrow and both probably you know, overall better. They're better quarterbacks than he is at this point. So I think that we're probably better prepared to face a quarterback like Jalen Hursts in majority of the teams that

Philly's facing right now. I agree, I definitely agree. I think there's a lot that goes into that, and we're gonna break down that game coming up later in the week. Remember though, sending your fan questions forward tomorrow as it's a fans on the fifty Tuesday. We've got shows Wednesday and Thursday as well. We'll be off for Christmas Day

on Friday. But once again, the Cowboys get a forty one thirty three win over the San Francisco forty nine ers, and my guy Jail on the chat reminded me, I want to say a shout out to how about Dez Bryant instead of doing the instead of doing this, how about the touchdown catch for Dez and doing the X for Dez Bryan as he taught a touchdown here yesterday

for the first time in three years. That's fantastic, very happy for Daz and cool to see that and his comeback really kind of complete, or at least you see his arrival again with that touchdown pass yesterday. But that's gonna do it for us here on Talking Cowboys. Thanks for joining us here over the last forty five minutes. For Chris Beam doing great work as always in the back, for heck Ma Harrison, Rob Phillips, and for Isaiah stand Back.

I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long. We'll see you tomorrow morning. On Talking Cowboys, Presented by Geico. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.