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Right now, or you could text in at eight one seven two nine zero three two nine to eight. We are going to hear from Cowboys Nation following the twenty eight to sixteen loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Monday. We've got the entire crew back in the SWBC studios at the Star. Isaiah stand back, Nick Harris, John Michoda, Welcome back, my friend. I'm Kyle Yeoman's John. We haven't heard from you yet. We'll let you start things off. How does what were your overall thoughts on Sunday's loss?
Pretty stunned? Yeah, pretty stunned. I guess that all has to do with what your perspective is on the team and what you think this team's and I did not think they were capable of playing that poorly, particularly on defense. You know, you lose the three starting offensive lineman. I can understand some issues on that side of the ball. But just watching that game over again yesterday, I just can't believe. Like I don't want to say lack of effort, but I just there wasn't that, you know, that edge
that I'm used to seeing this team play with. And there's just too much talent on that side of the ball. And if we're just being completely completely honest, where Seed is in the press box, we are directly right behind where the Cardinals run out of their their thing for pregame warm ups. I'm like, man, this is such a cool angle, but there's nobody on their team that like, is really I want to like take a video of. I mean, that's literally the level that that I mean.
I mean, I'm being honest. If anybody disagrees with me, tell me an NFL team from top to bottom in terms of just a star power, standout star that like is worse than that Cardinals team. Like I'm not saying that Da and Connor and all these guys didn't you know, Rondell Moore, they didn't play well and stuff like that, but I'm saying that roster to do that to your defense, particularly in the first half, I'm stunned. I really am.
Like it brought me back a little bit to Washington last year at the end of the season, a little bit to the Denver game the year before that. Now, they did have big responses to both those games, but I did not think that this team was capable of playing that poorly, And to be honest with you, knocks me down a little bit on the whole, Like, I don't think they're on the same category right now with the Eagles and Niners. I think they're a step down. And I didn't think that was the case going into
that game. Even knowing, hey, this could be a trap game, you know, twelve point favorite whatever, you know, you can't sleep on anybody. I still thought, like I mean up into the point where even like late in the fourth, I'm like, they'll get a touchdown here, They'll be right back in this game. The momentums all on their side. And to me, the most alarming play was that sixty nine yard pass to just have somebody that wide open.
I see that stuff on Saturdays, but on Sundays with a dan Quinn defense that was that was just odd to me. I couldn't believe it. Like again, where you're sitting in the prospect. You just like, well, there's a guy there. I'm pretty sure that they have eleven on the field. He seems like he's an eligible receiver. I don't know why he's twenty yards on the field. No
one's near him. Again, like Saturdays, you see that. Yeah, but from a defense that you think could be the best in the league, that was inexcusable.
I mean we were talking about Legion of Boom. We're talking about seventy Steelers, eighty five Bears. I mean that was the trajectory through two weeks.
Yeah, it was just two weeks.
But none of those things happened to that those defenses, right like that, none of the what Arizona did in Week three happened to the eighty five Bears. In the seventies steel Now in the Legion of Boom, like that just doesn't happen. Now, they were certainly missing Trayvon Diggs, but it wasn't all Trayvon Digs that that was missing.
Oh if they threw the ball all over the yard and you're just like, man, this secondary has got some work to do, which I couldn't see happening. But I guess after Sunday, I shouldn't say that there's anything I can't see happening because because that opened up a new chapter for me where I just I did not think but from where this defense is built. I thought that Washington game last year, the Denver game two years ago were gone. I didn't think that they could fall back
down to that type of a level. And so that was that was an eye opener there that, to be honest, well, probably won't sit right with me unless they were to come out of these first five at four and one and you go to San Francisco you won that game.
I could change a little bit on that. But as I sit right now, I see them going three and two through those first five and and who knows, this could be a game they look back on and they're like, man, I mean that ends up costing them a division, it caused you know, playoffs, are you know, seating or whatever like that. I don't know, but that's that one that there's no And then the whole talking about wake up collect for played two games? Who needs a wake up
collect for two games? Like that's not needed. I know you got to say something because you know they were stunned, but still, I mean, I don't know why you would need a wake up collect for only two weeks of beating the Giants and Jets.
No, it is.
True, and I'm well said on all occasions. I want to get more into that here in a little bit. But we are going to do some news and notes. We're bringing it back. I mean, we had news and notes with Rob Phillip, we had news and notes with Patrick no C.
Walker. Now we're gonna start it with Nick Harris. Nick Harris every day is going to give us our news.
What you need to write down, what you need to keep aware of for the Dallas Cowboys.
Anything stick out from yesterday.
Yeah, So today we're gonna highlight the availabilities from yesterday with Mike McCarthy and all three coordinators. I thought I pressed some mute button for a little bit, Mike McCarthy.
It was kind of a strike half.
It was a checkout check Okay, held up Mike McCarthy and all three coordinators. They took time with the with the media yesterday. We'll start with McCarthy asking about him about red zone problems. He said that they will spend more time on red zone this week, but they're not going to over react just yet.
Hmm.
So more time in the red zone. I mean, when you're working on more time in the red zone, what is that really? What are you trying to accomplish there?
It's a point of emphasis.
Yeah, just putting more on it, that is all.
That is always bringing attention to how important it is to your team that you can't take advantage of the fact that you're that you're getting down there to get down and you got to capitalize on it. So you just got to bring that back to the forefronts of guys and just say, hey, this is not our average portion of the field. Once we work to get down here, we have to end this drive with six points.
Yeah, it's also that was another part of the game that there's levels of this. The defensive performance to me is on the top level. But next down, I am surprised that they've gotten through three games not throwing a touchdown pass to a wide receiver. I mean that's pretty wild.
Yeah, I agree.
Talking to Dan Quinn yesterday, he was talking about the run defense. Obviously he was asked about it quite a bit. He called it a tail of two halves where in the first half they gave up one hundred and eighty one yards on the ground, it's the most for the franchise in thirty two years, and then overall giving up seven and a half yards per play throughout the entire game, the most in seven years. He said, sometimes you just have a performance that you're not pleased with at all.
When you walk around our locker room, you had a lot of pissed off people, and they should be. We were not up to the center that we had set for ourselves. When you're going through a difficult performance, you do grow from them. I would love to say you learn from forty to nothing, but that ain't the truth. You got to have some adversity and come out the other end to show what you're capable of. These guys are a war your crew, and they will responded like crazy.
It felt like he was a little uh.
It was almost like he was offended in the way that people were talking about the defense and how it didn't look like a dan Quinn defense.
Not offended by the.
At least by the headlines, because the headlines were what they were and then were the truth. It was more offended because of kind of like what John was talking about initially of a dan Quinn defense doesn't look like that especially a dominant dan Quinn defense doesn't look like what they had against Arizona. But they did look like that. It didn't look like a dan Quinn defense. He said that was one of the things that hurt him the most.
I think, so I didn't Maybe I'm reading too much in between the lines there.
I couldn't.
I couldn't really get a read on if he was talking about media saying that or people that text him, because he because you know how he mentioned later about like people like about the tray Von Diggs thing, you know, other people in the league reaching out to him. So I was kind of like, I wonder if that he's also talking about like other people in the league that were like, damn, you know, that didn't look like your
your normal defense or something like that. And the thing they said he was so upset about is the fact that or he called it. He didn't call it a slap to the face. He said, like I think he said like five five fingers he had to the face. Was the fact that when he looks back and he's like, they were right, it doesn't it didn't look like our defense, you know. So I don't know, maybe I was reading too much into that, but I didn't. I don't think he was talking media, but maybe it was.
I don't know.
Yeah, you got to the point that I was just about to highlight on that he had come. Dan Quinn always comes out with like an opening statement in his compress conferences. He's he only wanted the four to do it, and he had said in that opening statement he said, our performance felt like five fingers to the face. And whenever everyone was saying, you know that this defense didn't look like itself, it was five fingers to the face, and he said, you know, that was tough because it was true.
So I think it's.
Maybe a little bit of self reflection in that moment as well, and also just being disappointed.
In the overall effort.
Maybe maybe it could be just you know, people getting on it a little too much, who knows. But nevertheless, you know he's gonna have an opportunity to bounce back from it, this defense overall against a really good New England team coming up next. Thing this is really interesting that we dove into with offense coordinator Brian Schottenheimer yesterday. Will Greer was signed by the Patriots last week onto their active squad, and.
He said that he's probably a guy.
He's probably being interrogated by Bill Belichick at the moment for hand signals and anything else that could help them give a little bit of an advantage going into this game. On Sunday, and Schottenheimer had a funny quote. He said, Will and Will and Zeke Ezechiel Elliott being there as well. Will and Zeke know where the bones are buried. Those are things you talk about. We certainly have more than one hand signal for most of our core concepts, and sometimes you can use it to your advantage.
Everybody does it.
You get a player that's played somewhere, you bring them in to talk about different things, and you're very selective about how much you put into it. I'm excited to see Will, but I'm sure he's being interrogated. It'll be a lot of late nights with the defensive coaching staff.
If only we had somebody somebody on this panel, I don't know who.
I call it Belichick spy mission.
That would be the article played for Bill ella Check at some point in his career. I wonder if we had somebody like that, where what would they say? In this moment it was called Jesse Holly Jesse.
No, he's on hanging with the boys.
Yeah.
I mean, I mean, like like Shotty said, this is a part of the game. You get somebody your roster. They have information, they have insight. I mean, is Will Greer showing up isn't going to change the world. You already had Zeke on your team, So any information that you wanted to attain, it's already attainable if anybody knows it. I think Zeke would understand what was going on. Bringing Will Grear just adds another level to it.
Yeah, but maybe like new offense, you know, new hand signals, new concepts. He's only a month off of it, not eight months off of it. You know, he did just throw thirty for thirty four in that offense or twenty nine thirty.
I hear you.
Jack Prescott was a play caller, and Jack Prescott was a play call.
I mean when I was playing with the Giants, I mean I knew all the hand signals for New England. Of course you pass that information along, you know when you go and help you win a ring. So I mean, that's that's a part of the game.
I think the key sentence was we're very selective aout how much we put into it, so I'm sure it'll be maybe once or twice it'll be like, hey, that looks familiar. Maybe look for this, but don't marry yourself to it.
It really comes in play in the two minute because you know, from Shoddy's perspective, you could change things up scheme wise during the game. I could change up some signals. But when it gets hot and heavy and you're blown and going, the last thing you're thinking about is what's
the new hand signal that we installed this week. No, you're going back to the same old foundational pillars that you have, and I'm going in them, and Dak's doing his thing, and I'm giving my signals, and that's when it comes to play, those those high intensity two minute drill type settings. That's when Dak's gonna call what will knows?
And that's I mean, for the most part, you can't upend that in a week. No, there's no way that you could upend that in a week. You could change certain things, like you said, just to throw them off, But outside of that, I mean, that's just a minuscule amount of what the entire playbook could open up correct.
Well, only be a small portion of the game possibly, you know, depending on the situation going into the half or any of the game. But it can come into play for sure.
Does it happen often where you purposefully will put out a sign out there that Will Greer would know, But it's completely opposite from what it was in this show.
So I'm saying it would have to be in a two minute situation, like you're not really doing that during the game. Yeah, I mean, they're not running no huddle. You know, Dallas is getting to the ball. They're getting out huddle quickly getting to the ball, but they're not running no huddle. So it's not really going to come into too much play. Check with me's type of deal. Most of the check with me is that Dallas is running. You don't see Dak out there playing Peyton Manning where
he's up there changing the entire play. You know, with this West Coast offense is usually just come up. You know, you choose the side that you want to go to. If you need to flip something over, you know, you over over. You give an over overcall because a lot of times the tight ends are on opposite ends or you're flipping things around, so it's not a lot of hand signals in this offense, so there's not a lot
for a will to give away. But if they do find themselves in a two minute situation, that's when you can have your intendas up to see, hey, this can possibly hurt you.
See this is what you do for this game? Is that for this one particular one, because of this, you just do the college thing and you just come out there and you have somebody on the sideline that as one of those signs as like for different it's like a Waterburger symbol, Tupac, Taylor Swift, Kyle and you know Kyle's face and you know, and it's.
That that place the camera.
I do love how that is used, well not maybe not as much in college it.
Used to be, but that always just random stuff like how is that not trickled up to the NFL. Yeah, no, you're right, that's true because it started high school and then you got some colleges.
Of course the colleges do you.
Guys ever do that you're in college, but you were in you were in a conference that because to me, when I think of it, I think of Oregon.
No right here, and I was like that looks silly. Couldn't stop them either.
So that was about to say, wait a second, the.
Pride of my career was that there's a school down in South Texas.
How It'sville. They had used a picture of my dog just because no way.
A couple of years ago, I'd spent a lot of time around that program, and They're like, we want to use your face, and I'm like, I don't want to use my face, you can use my dog, and so I gave them my dog's face. Yeah, it's the pride of my career. I have a picture of somewhere. I gonna find it, but.
Yeah, that's yeah, you're gonna have to tweet it out later for sure.
That last news and note from from yesterday, we had asked Mike McCarthy just about injuries, especially all three up from the offensive line. He said he hadn't really had a chance at that point yesterday to see how those guys were doing. No more on Wednesday, but while they were banged up going into the game, not a ton of injuries coming out of the game. Damon Clark had kind of banged up his shoulder a little bit, but it looks like he'll.
Be all right going forward.
Stephen Jones was asked on the one O five three, his radio hit on Monday about the same thing about Beattish, Zach Martin, and Tyler all being Tyron, Tyler, and zach Man's computer tools all being back for Sunday. He said, it's possible. We'll just have to see how the week goes. You got to take each guy week to week. Is it possible, yes, Do we know for sure? Absolutely not.
So I don't know what to think in terms of injuries right now, because, like we talked about yesterday, we came into the week.
We were at least we finished our show on Friday.
We were doing the doing the Bushwhacker, and we were getting out of there and we were saying, yeah, we're gonna have some offensive lineman back, and then all of a sudden, you don't. So they're all back.
And Mike McCarthy sounded genuinely surprised by what they had to go through because and felt like it was on him that he didn't get more reps with some of those guys during the week, like a TJ. Bass, you know, like Chumah, thinking that hey, we might have to go with all these guys. I think he was pretty confident from what he was hearing that, Hey, I'm going to have at least two of these guys for that game.
And so it sounds like there was a lot of scrambling going on right before that game to figure out I mean Zach Martin, I mean Tyron Smith was out there warming up like he normally does. I thought for sure Tyron Smith was playing, and then he came out, you know, fully dressed. I will say when he ran out of the tunnel, he did not look like himself. It did look like it was like a they want me to win in a uniform, I'll come out here,
but there's no chance I'm going today. Like even in the like warm up lines and the stretching lines that I was like, that does not look like Tyron Smith is going to play. But but yeah, I don't think that they got the prep time that they were hoping or probably should have gotten with those young offensive linemen. But still, even with that being said, I still think that game was there for them in the second half.
I really no doubt. Yeah, they still should have been good enough to win that game.
And I think most Cowboys fans out there that are frustrated with the performance probably thought the same thing.
Probably thought something very similar.
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Welcome back into Dear Doctor, the show where I answered Life's questions with an ice cold can of doctor pepper. Sheila let's hear from my next caller.
Would you there, doctor?
My friend supported me during a tough time.
But what's the right gift that says thanks for being a soldier.
To cry out?
Okay, this one's easy, I say, give her a delicious Doctor Pepper. Nothing says thanks good better than one of a kind soda. Yes, any Doctor Pepper flavor will do. Now, just a reminder that I don't need to be a real doctor to know that Doctor Pepper is the one you deserve.
To Talking Cowboys, This segment is brought to you by Quaker Oats, a super trusted superfood. Quaker Oats, the official oatmeal sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys. Welcome back into Talking Cowboys. Here on this Talking Tuesday, we're taking your phone calls, we're answering your text messages. Let's start things off on the phone line Gary in New Mexico, as we go out to the land of enchantment.
Gary, what's up? You're on Talking Cowboys.
Hey, you go tell y'all doing it?
Thanks for taking my call.
Yeah, I appreciate you.
A couple of positive things.
And then I got a question for Isaiah that I hope he doesn't take the wrong way, But they really did clamp down on the run in the second half, so it seems like they adjusted and played much better run defense in the second half. The offense, I don't really have a problem with it, except for the red zone. But we are running the ball well, We're doing well in between the twenties. We just got to get the red zone stuff fixed. But this brings me to my concern.
And I'm not questioning the toughness of the players, don't get me wrong, but Isaiah, do you think we're being a little overcautious with some of our players? I mean, because we heard all we you know, Zach's gonna be able to go, the autists will probably be able to go, and then all of a sudden at the last second, we're sitting free offensive linemen. I mean, at some point, don't you just have to you know, I'm an old guy. Don't you just have to rub some dirt on it and go.
Out there and play.
You know, I respect your question, I appreciate your question. I do believe that there's always that element to and I think a lot of these guys that play the game of football, regardless of what team, have to do that because everybody plays hurt you. The injuries and hurt are two different things. Explain that to my kids all the time. I do believe that I have wholehearted trust
in this training staff. So if they were in a position to play without causing any further damage to something that was going to put you in a bad predicament going forward, then I think that they made the right decision in regards to Tyrone Tyler Biadis. As soon as I heard that he had a hamstring, I knew he wasn't going to play. I mean, I can't sit up here and say that on the air because it's I don't know, no, right, I didn't hear it's not official
word from the training staff. But anytime my office a linement hurts his hamstring, he's going to be out. It's just is what it is. Zach Martin. That was the surprise to me in terms of the whole ankle. We understood that he had a couple of plays in the previous game that kind of almost really put him out, and that's why they got him out of there, like, hey, okay, we've kind of we've had our look. Our look almost
ran out on Zach. So taking care of him. But I understand you're concerned in terms of putting your you know, the team, not having their guys when they possibly could have still played. There's a there's a give and take
to that. You know, you go out there, you play Zach Martin, you played Tyron Smith, and all of a sudden, those guys go out there and they make their injuries worse that they if you keep them out, they could be healthy within a week, but if you play them, they could be out for possibly three weeks if they make it worse. Right, So there's there's give and take on that. So you have to be smart about how you're how you're managing those guys, especially early on in the season.
And I'm not saying that this is the case. I'm just throwing out a hypothetical here. I'm sure there are plenty of people that think, going to that game when it starts and you find out, oh, all three of those aren't playing, is that because it's Arizona. Would it be the same if they were playing San Francisco. I'm just saying that there's a lot of people. I guarantee that it wouldn't be the same if it was the playoffs.
There has to be people that think that. I'm not saying that they would, but I just want to know your thoughts.
People are going to ask that question. I mean, but the reality is you're in the first quarter of your season and you're you're you're talking about guys that you have to have. These aren't skill position players that you just the next man up, like these guys like you have to you have to protect these guys, you know, and these guys are going to get beat up. It's not like they're they may or may not get hit some point this season, you know, Okay, is it a concussion? Okay?
Can we could probably run them some routes that and you know, keep them away from getting hit by safety. He's like, no, these guys are going to get hit every single play. These guys are gonna be, you know, putting their foot in the ground and talking about ankles
and knees. These guys are gonna have to bear this weight of other guys for sixty Dallas's standpoint, they're running eighty plays a game, you know, for for seventeen games, so there is a management aspect to it, especially when when you have older players.
And then to the colors point, like, you know, talking about how being an old school rub some dirt on it and things like that. I will say that the
we have more information now than ever before. I think that's why you see so much of the you know, load management in the NBA, because of the fact that there's just is a lot more data that you know, and that's why all these guys are all wearing all the I don't won't say the brand because I don't know which one the Cowboys used, yeah, either, but I think it's I think it's Catapult, but it doesn't matter.
But anyway, like they're all wearing them. Yeah, that we're in the GPS monitors on them like practice you know games. I mean all the colleges are like that now too. So it's like there is a lot more information than there used to be, so you you have to account for that as well.
Yeah.
I was talking with Patrick Walker on the sideline before the game, whenefore we found out that Tyrone was probably not going to be able to go, and he asked me, and it was an interesting question. He was like, if this was Week sixteen and they were fighting for playoff positioning, do all three of these guys play? And I was like probably probably, Yeah, definitely if it's playing.
But at that point, again, it goes back to the point I just made in terms of this is load management. Yeah, this is like risk risk, risk versus reward. Like if you drop a game, which they did, they drop a game. Okay, it sucks, absolutely, it sucks regardless of who the op point it is. But guess what. You know that these guys are going to be healthy most likely this coming week. You know, you rather have that going forward than than
risking them and re injuring or making it worse. I mean, you know that Cincinnati was holding your breath yesterday.
Yeah.
The other issue with a lot of this is is that not only do they have more information, we have more information we know about all these teams, all these other injuries that if it wasn't for social media and the internet, you probably wouldn't know about a lot of this stuff, let's say twenty years ago, about each individual team. And so I think a lot of people will see these certain things and it's almost like it becomes, oh, this is the injury three to four weeks, this is it.
This is because of all these other players, And that's not the case. Human beings everyone's differently. I mean, I'll give you a great example on the positive side for the Cowboys is Terren Steele. Most people, if you look at the injury had, you would not think that he'd be back to where he is this quickly. And then other players might have the same injury and it might take them a little bit longer. You don't know from player to player what's it going to be. I mean,
Steven Yes said yesterday on the radio. No, he said Tyler, so that could be Smith could be hottish. I took it as he was talking about Tyler Smith and he said that they thought that was going to be three to four weeks. And so you know he's back after he's in. Tyler Smith is back, you know, in the third game, so it will only be in two weeks.
But you know, you don't know for sure. But there is so much information out there now where you're like, oh, Burrow, Calf, dak Head Calf, let's see how many wigs and he will be back week seven, and if he's not, then there's something wrong. It's like everybody's different. You don't know for sure.
I mean they're projections, yeah, and not even to talk specifically about that. But to look ahead and to make those armchair trainer I mean, you've always had armchair quarterbacks. Now you've got these armchair trainers that are out there as well. Let's not put these guys in harm way harm's way. We're gonna get that information this week too, whether or not they're in practice, whether they're ready for
the game. That's when we're gonna see whether or not they could have gone on Sunday, because if they're both in practice in pads tomorrow, then it's like, Okay, maybe this was a load management.
Maybe this's always a question.
Also to the point, I mean, yes, you're playing Arizona. Plays that plays a role in Indusrael, right, So not because Arizona is a lesser opponent, but because if your guys are not prepared to go over the next few weeks, because you made the decision to play them in week three, right, versus holding them out for a week. Now you don't have your starters against New England's D line. Now you don't have your starters against forty nine ers D line, and good luck with that.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's that's where a lot of the focus has been as week five.
I mean, we even talked about it last week. Let's gohead and fast forward. Let's go and be four and oh and both of.
These guys don't work out. New England d line is nasty too.
Now they are.
We'll talk about that a little bit more tomorrow, right or what was that Thursday?
Thursday?
Is that preview?
All right, let's go to Bob in Rio Grand Valley. You're on Talking Cowboys, Bob, what's on your mind?
Borning guys, appreciate you taking my call, and let me tell you I love your program.
Well, thank you very much.
I've got something for the guy who's one of the two guys on the podcast that I consider to be the voice of reasoning at This is for Isaiah. But tell me if I'm missing this, Isaiah. I think that we have the short yardage solution already on our team. I think we have the red zone the solution already on our team. And I realize that the guy comes
from a small school, but so does Tony followed. I'm very, very impressed with Hunter Lupki and every opportunity that he's been given so far in the preseason and in the regular season, he has excelled. He's he runs like a half back, even though he's a fullback. He catches like a slot receiver. He gets yacked after he catches the ball. He's a lucy and he's powerful. I think that he would be utilizing him more in offense, particularly in the short yardage situations, would be a benefit.
What do you think, Yeah, thank you for the question. I do agree with you that he is a threat and he's a weapon. I think they have been working him in a good amount over the last few weeks. He's earning more trust with his staff the more he goes out there and continues to execute. I don't think it's in it's a personnel issue to your point, I don't think it's a personal issue at all. The more film I watch, the more I believe that these guys
are offensively, at least playing kind of robotic. They're there. When you're in a new system, you're trying to do it exactly like you see it on paper. When you're confident in the system, you start feeling like I can start making tweaks to how I run this route. Right when I start feeling comfortable, Okay, Jack can understand versus man coverage and they're playing off or cover zero now instead of running up five yards, putting my foot in the grunt and coming in like it shows on paper.
Now I can just take one step and go across because I'm open right now. They're not making those alterations right now. Also, I think that you know, some of the better players on this team are not being utilized correctly in that part of the field. So I think a lot of those things are going to improve, especially when you get your starting offensive lineback, because they will run the ball more, so you might see more Liftkey.
I think you'll see a good actually a good share of him, but I'm not sure if he'll be the one carrying them.
Yeah.
And the other thing is that right now they are relatively healthy at their skill positions, at least having the guys available, and when you look at it, there's just not that many spots available for Lipke to get more touches because are you giving more touches and you're taking Michael Gallup off the field or Brandon Cooks or Ceedee Lamb or Tony Pollard. So then it comes down to is he getting more than Jake Ferguson. And then in with that tight end group, because they're not going to
give it more. I mean, there's only eleven players on the field you can when the Cowboys are completely healthy, it's pretty cut and dry. Who are going to get the most touches, you know? So maybe if Lipkey was going to get more, it would probably have to cut into you know, like a Peyton hendershots role. But that's about the only person I can see. Maybe you give him some more work there with with the bigger packages
and stuff like that. Just it's tough when they're not going to take a lout those skill guys off the field to bring in, you know, a tight end slash, running back, slash full back.
Yeah, first off, I was really scared to ask who the other voice of reason was.
Now I'm curious, Yeah, I want to know who.
It's probably you because if the Hunter, it had to have been.
But my ego couldn't handle it not being.
The captain of the Hunter. Lipkey fan base over here.
Yeah, yeah, now that's my favorite topics we talked about on the show. Yeah, he got his first two touches on Sunday. He did really well with him specifically the handoff. They had a guy that came right through the a gap and he just kind of tiptoed around him and spun around him really quick. It should have been only about a one yard game, ended up turning it into like a stumble and grumble nine yards. I really loved what I saw there, and actually it was something I
kind of thought about coming out of the game. You know, can he be used more in short yard situations? Can they use him more in red zone situations? I think there's definitely an opportunity there. But again, get that offensive line healthy and let's see.
That's how you know Bob is a longtime listener of this show is that he one called Isaiah the Voice of Reason. We used to call Isaiah that like all the time right when we first started on this podcast.
And then he also listens currently because he brought up Hunter Lipkey and that's Hunter Lipkey hype train over here.
I mean, I will say I follow a lot of different people that cover this team and cover the NFL, and I don't know many people outside of Isaiah that were talking about how like, don't sleep on this Arizona Cardinals team. Don't sleep on the Arizona Cardinals team. And I definitely had my blanket I was sleeping. I'll say that right now, up until up until even kickoff. I was like, nah, I mean they'll give him a little bit of a run early on, but I'm like fourth
I mean not even fourth quarter. I'm like, second half, they'll come out, They'll they'll straighten this out.
I will say, seventy five yards from josh UMAs. We didn't get a chance to talk about it yesterday when he broke off that forty four yarder on the read option, I texted Kyle some exploitents.
I thought about looking when it happened, I was like, I'm not going to do it because I know that he's already worried enough, so I'm not going to be.
I definitely texted Kyle of a bad curse word, and you should.
See I got you should. I stood up.
I was in I was sitting down.
I just settled into my chair and I was getting ready to get my notebook out and start taking notes.
And I stood up and I was like no, no, like just yelling at the screen.
Everybody in there outside of Isaiah were like, what is this dude talking about.
I'm sitting there literally like this. Yeah.
He ended the game with two carries for what fifty one yards and he had had he'd had that at the end of the first quarter.
They just gave him.
They would have did more of that. He would he definitely would not.
I'll and I'll say this, I'll give him a chance. Let's see a few more weeks. If this is a team that wins like three or four games, I'm sorry, Like, I'm not going to think any differently than I did before the game. Yeah, they played great, had a great game plan, everything was great. Now is that all of a sudden they got they got lightning in a bottle
and this team is about to roll. And I'm not saying make the playoffs, Arizona, Arizona, but if they if they're gonna win like eight or nine games, I'll sit back and be like, man, I never saw that coming with that team. But and I'm talking even if Kyler comes back and he's great and whatever like that. I'm talking about like, when I look at that team right now, that looks like a team to me that that's drafting in the top ten.
Yeah, josh Ja Dobbs getting his first career win as a starter. He was zero and four. He was good before that.
Happy for buddy. He played was actually really good dude, real quarterback.
Yeah, no doubt. All right, let's go to Brian in Kansas City. When we will go come Brian.
Hold on for one second, we do need to take a break, so we'll go to Brian in a second.
I didn't look at the clock before, and that one's on me, guys.
I will get to Brian and we'll hinswer some of your text messages when we come back here on Talking Cowboys.
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To Talking Cowboys.
This segment of Talking Cowboys is brought to you by in viz a Line, the official Smile.
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We have Isaiah Stanback, John Machoda, Nick Harris, Chris Beam in the back of Kyle the omens. Let's go to Brian in Kansas City. Sorry for the t's Brian, but you are on Talking Cowboys.
We're ready to go.
Good boarding, gentlemen.
What's going on morning?
Well, you know, I was wondering if you played basketball, Kyle, because that was a pretty good head sake.
You guess I like it.
I'm not as much of a ballplayer as Nick Harris. To my right, that's that's the real hooper.
In the group.
Damn right, I'll tell you so. Uh you know at first, you know, Kyle, every time I call in, I try to remember this and I never do. I want to just tell you how much I love the Draft show and appreciate all the work you guys put into that.
It is.
It is absolutely fantastic for people like me who don't have time to try to figure all that stuff out. A great way to just listen in and get some really good information from people who have studied those players.
Well, I appreciate that, Brian, thanks for that.
So my question is a lot of people talked about, you know, having three offensive linemen out, asking how much that changed your game plan? And I hate to do this because everybody's asked Isaiah specifically a question this morning, But being the quarterback in the room, I'm just curious how much of that how does that get into you know, you can't speak for another man, but when you're preparing and in the game and the heat of the moment,
how much of your mentality does that affect? Not having your guys with you And I'll hang up and listen. Have a good one, guys.
Thank you, Ed, thanks for a question. Uh So there's two parts of that. There's a professional side where it's like, okay, you know, next man up, doesn't matter, I'm gonna execute the game plan. And then you got the real version of you who's like, dang man, like all right, I'm gonna be a little bit. I have a little bit less time, you know, with they do it go over I do than I do with Tyrant. I mean, that's just the reality. Man. We may not be able to run up the middle as much as we wanted to
because we're missing our you know, Zach Martin. You know, so there's there's some actual truth to some of the things that go on in your head. You try to you still try to go out there and execute your game plan, but coaches are making changes, players are making changes. Players are making, you know, very educated decisions based upon the reality of the personnel that's out there. So you know,
there's really two guys. You got, you gotta you got the you got the professional side sitting on one side, and you have the real version sitting on the other shoulder. And it's a it's real, it's a real balance. But you still have to go out there and execute. That's the professional side of you. You still got to go out there and make it happen. The offensive line honestly
didn't play that bad. There were individuals who didn't have great showings, but holistically, I don't think that it was a bad performance by them.
There's a couple of text messages that are kind of around that I don't have a name on this one specifically, but it's talking about Dak Prescott missing reads and you've talked about that a couple of times in the past couple of years.
In the past of.
It happens for every quarterback, but it's happened significantly for Dak, especially these last two seasons.
Did you see any more of that on Sunday? And is that something that you should probably keep an eye on.
Yeah, I mentioned was a Gannon, the head coach, former defensive coordinator for Philadelphia. I mentioned that during my weekly review that he's I guess was on Thursday, right, Yeah, my Scott and report that he has given Dak problems. Dak has struggled with that. He does a great job disguising his coverages. It showed up again. It did show up again. Dak got lucky. There was about three balls that should have been picked off that Dak should not
have thrown. There was some old characteristics of Dak that crept back in this most recent week, and he just didn't It wasn't apparent to the general public because they weren't picked off. They were just kind of batted down or tip balls. They kind of went as incomplete. But the decision behind throwing them was like, bro, what what are you doing?
You think that's a byproduct of having a makeshift offensive line and having that other side, that other shoulder or.
Is that just Nope? I think that is bad. I think it was just bad performance. He did not have. He didn't have the greatest of his showings, and like I said, luckily, you know, I mentioned this last year. I think one time where I was like, hey, there was one a couple of games, was like he should have had a few picks. He's like, oh, no, it wasn't that bad. The next day, the next game it showed up and that time they got picked off. Right. So I'm hoping that he doesn't revert back to what
it was. A lot of those decisions that I'm referring to really came when he came when he got out of the pocket. A lot of times when he's in the pocket, it is really one two three, get it out right or catch, you know, set your feet, throw, just because how this offense is kind of created. But when he got out of the pocket, he was still starting to start. He went back to trying to force things that weren't there.
And those three that you're talking about were did you find them to be worse same level? How did they compare to the inner sception?
Well, the interception was a very scripted I'll say that's not the worth best word to use it. That play was dialed up, like they knew what the coverage is going to be telegraphed. Yeah, I mean they knew what it was going to be. Right, So just because you know what it's going to be, and just because you see the coverage as you practiced, it doesn't mean that everything got executed the way it should have been. B
Cooks didn't run the best of routes. Dak should not have thrown the ball the way he threw the ball. I think the read was right, but the timing on that particular play has to be so precise. The ball has to be absolutely perfect because if you go back and watch it, if that guy doesn't pick it off. Then there's literally the two safeties that were split safeties, which is why this play was ran right. He's faking as if he's running the over route. He runs it out,
that middle linebacker puts his foot in the ground. He supposed to go over the top. I ran that route a thousand times in practice. It's just a great scheme, but it has to be done correct because if you don't, if you throw the ball with low trajectory, he gets picked off by a six four linebacker.
I think what he tried to do instead was like zip it by his ear, and there.
Was no there's no there's no there's no zipping. I mean there's there's no zipping on that the play. It has to be the perfect environment for that play, and it just wasn't the perfect environment. So you have to either throw a perfect ball with perfect timing or you got to come off of that read, and that decision obviously didn't happen. Uh.
I want to hit some of the text messages that we've been getting. One of my favorites so far is a really good question from Patrick in Las Vegas. Was the problem on the.
Run defense just a scheme issue or a lack of execution issue. Where where does it start from stopping the run? Nick, whenever you look back at.
The film, is execution scheme? Where does it need to start first?
I don't think it was necessarily a scheme issue. I think Arizona had the right scheme though. I mean it was a lot of poll action. Offensive linemen were designed to get into the second level. Everyone had a responsibility pre snap and it was getting a lot of those guys were getting into the second level with Mark east Bell or Donovan Wilson, guys that were, you know, trying to come down and defend the run. You could look at the Joshua Dobbs run Donovan Wilson, he just misses
the hole. So that's that's just bad gap integrity. He was supposed to come around to the outside. He just never. Joshua Dobbs never even faked to go inside. He was coming around the whole time. Donovan Wilson just missed coming in. There was a big play that I believe it was on the Rondell More touchdown the forty five yarder where Mark east Bell got held up in the second level. I mean it was just a really good block coming in and Markus couldn't do anything about that. That's just
a really good scheme by Arizona. And there was one where they had a receiver come into the hole and they were able to lead the way for James Connor. James Connor picked up about a fifty to twenty yard game. So there was a lot of poll action and we hadn't seen a lot of that in the first two weeks. And I think, you know, that second level it's still young. I think they were, you know, taking him back a little bit. I think that was a huge contributor to
the run defense problems. But overall that the biggest problem. There was no push up front. Guys were getting flushed out completely. I mean, Michael Parsons was almost ineffective as he could be in the run game. DeMarcus Lawrence had a couple of big plays, but you know, I've always said on the show, I think he's the best run defender on that defensive line.
He didn't have he was getting flushed out.
I mean they were trying to take the edges completely out and just ram that interior, and they did a great job of it.
Those big plays in the first half, the four really big runs twenty plus runs all to the left, all the way from DeMarcus Lawrence. I think I felt like probably were on purpose, you know, even one of them on what I call it the Kyle play where you know, vander esh is the right edge and Micah's up over the center, one of them gave you know, that turned into one of those big plays like that as well.
But I'm just always gonna think it was Kyle play now because question the Dan Quinn when you asked him about it and at training camp and Dan didn't want to. He asked Dan at training camp about the like, oh, you know in those plays where you know, how.
Did it become a Kyle quay?
Yeah?
How was it a Kyle play?
I don't know.
That's that's a big play.
That's right, that's right. I'm sorry it was like wait a second talking about that.
I'm sorry you were.
Looking at him.
I'm an idiot.
No, it's funny.
Yes, a Nick play.
Turn to me.
I was like, Nick was the one that that's the.
Beam. I'm gonna what did he say? Get on me for.
When whenever penalties come into fruition and that's when it's a Kiku.
Whenever I ask about pen. That's when it happens like that, that's fun to go.
I mean, there's there's a ton of these text messages. I'm trying to bunch a bunch of them together. This one, specifically from the five seven zero says watching Philadelphia run against Tampa Bay last night provided some more of the concern with the run defense.
Of course, you've seen what Philadelphia can do.
New England can run the ball, run the ball to they can they can tote the rock as well.
How concerned are.
You going into these next three games, Isaiah whenever it comes to slowing down the run if those things aren't fixed.
New England, I'm not too worried. I think that does a relatively good job against teams that just line up and come downhill. Like I mentioned last week, you know, Arizona proposes an issue because of their style of run, right, they run his zone raid scheme. They do a good job with a lot of movement, a lot of misdirection. Misdirection kills this defense and really puts their feet in quicksand they just stop their feet and they're like, okay,
now what's happening. And then the second level vander Esch took terrible angles this week. I mean, he's not fast as it is, so you can't take a bad angle and be slow. It's just a bad combination. And then you know, defensive ends got taken out of the game because the reizone read holds defensive ends running quarterbacks whole defensive ends. So when you have a defensive end that's in a wide nine technique and all of a sudden he stays out there, well there's a gaping hole right
on the inside. Especially when you're running stunts with your defensive line right you don't have gap discipline. So those type of schemes. San Francisco proposes those same issues. Obviously, because all the misdirection and motions and all the things that the snapp of the ball New England is not as much, not as much, I think that. I think I don't think that's going to be as much of a struggle. They're gonna be adamant about trying to come
downhill and run the ball. Obviously that's just because that's coach Belichick. But Billy O'Brien wants to throw the ball, so that's going to be the struggle.
How about when Dan was asked about making sure it was Dan. Now, all these names are messing, but when Dan was asked specifically about the linebackers how he did not want to call any of them out, so he turned it into let me just tell you about the three people that did play well, and it was like DeMarcus Lawrence, Malik Hooker and Ron Bland and like after I tweet that there's so many people they're throwing Hooker under the bus for that for that big play.
Yeah, really well, Os has been balling all year. Guy's been doing a great job of getting penetration. D Law obviously had a good job, did a good job of getting back there. Goldston when he got back there, he was doing a great job as well. Big Hankins is Big Hankins. It's just guys are just like you to your point. You know, I showed this on the film room last week. Guys just getting there getting washed, and
Arizona does a good job of that. When you wash, When even if one man has bad gap discipline and you can get him boom turned and that defensive end stale staying out there, you have two gaps of openness, so big runs are going to happen, especially if your second level is taking Bad England.
So who else are going to be major problems then? Going forward?
I mean, I mean overg just over. I'm not going to look past the next couple of weeks. But I think New England run wise, I'm not threatened by them run wise. Will they be persistent, Yes, they are very persistent and bullheaded, and if they have a even an inch that they can take, they're going to take it. But I think they want to throw the ball the tight ends is where you need to have your attention at this week. And who's going to be guarding those guys?
But San Francisco. Yeah, San Francisco is going to run the ball forty times at Dallas. They don't care. They do not care.
Man, the way Philly ran the ball last night, they looked really good. The only thing that I think could get in Philly's way is they've forced the pass way too much, like when they don't even need to.
They haven't got office coordinator, they haven't gotten sync yet.
It's wild, but like there were times that they shouldn't have even been throwing in a situation and they were just forcing things down.
Like they were trying to prove to themselves that they can't throw exactly.
We've got it in the bag. It's happening.
But it didn't.
Yeah, it looked strange at times. Put their running game really really good, DeAndre, so.
They can run.
He's their guy. He's their guy.
All right, Well, great questions all the way across the job today. I thought all three callers were fantastic, Gary, Bob, Brian.
Our text line was blowing up.
We didn't even get close to all the text Thanks for the engagement.
We appreciate it.
Every talking Tuesday. We're taking the phone calls, we're taking the text messages. May even sprinkle in a couple tomorrow, but we have got the defensive preview tomorrow. What is the defense gonna sprinkle some more into what does the defense look like in a rebound effort against Ezekiel Elliott and the New England.
Patriots Zeki's back.
I asked Os Digizua last night on the Cowboys Hour. I was like, have you thought about hitting Zeke yet?
And he goes, actually I have. So they're already starting to get into it. Really excited to talk about that defensive preview.
Plus, we're gonna have John's National Storylines segment the debut of a brand news segment here on Talking Cowboys, but that doesn't for us. You're on a Talking Tuesday for Chris Beam, Isaiah stand Back, John Machoda, Nick Harris, and Kyle Yeoman. Saying so long from the Star in Frisisco. We'll see you tomorrow on Talking Cowboys.
Guys. Well, thanks'all, Thanks being, thanks being sorry.
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