Talkin' Cowboys: What Happened On Offense?

SWBC studios at the Star in Frisco. Heck My Harrison, Isaiah stand Back, Rob Phillips, Chris Beam, I'm Kyle Yeomans. In the final regular season episode of twenty twenty one, did you finish off the Golden Grounds? Uh? Yeah, we get upstairs, Yeah, lays Golden Grounds. Golden Grounds man don't win you a bag because there's only like five that they're giving away. Wow, five by whom by lays? Oh

I believe so. I thought it was like two hundred they made two hundred that they're giving away five, or maybe the Cowboys are getting I don't think I wont i tweeted at them, I didn't get anything back. You didn't win. I don't think so. Goodness, I put my name in a hat, but that's probably you already tasted the golden ground. I did taste the golden ground. Yeah, we had the nice crunch last week and they were delish. Yeah, but how's everybody doing? Is the recovery set in yet? Oh? Yeah?

His sunken already. It is sunken like Quicksand I don't know, it feels very like like a freaking funeral around this part. Man disappointment. I get it, I get it. Man sucks. It's always like this on a Monday after a loss. But I think you got to multiply it by ten yep this week and yeah, missed opportunity. Yeah really, I mean, as good as they've had in years, you don't get

them back. No, And you only get so many tries at a super Bowl, and you only get so many tries in the playoffs to even get that direction, and the fact that you're not there it is. It's disappointing. Heck. But if you had one word to describe the way that cowboys feel cowboys, it has to be a clean word. It has to be radio radio friend out commas. Yeah, I ain't trying to get me about it here right now. Radio friendly. One word to describe how Cowboys Nation is

feeling right now, oh down, it just sucks. This is this is pretty bad on the level. I mean, you you thought you had everything going this season, you thought you had all the pieces, um, and it didn't come together. And after going back and watching the game again, we were never even close in that game. And you know what Jerry said it after the game in the tunnel that the score was not indicative of the beat doo. Yeah, yeah, in so many words, No, I wasn't close, kind of

like Arizona. Arizona, that game came down at the very end. But the better team that day clearly was the road team. I mean but even when I look at the Arizona team the game last night, I was saying to myself, how much different would it have been if they had Hopkins? You know, how much more of that offense was just cut off because now the Rams just had to concentrate on the guys that they had a just coming down

to stretch. If you don't have all of your guys, it affects the way that you play and that's just that's just it, and that's that's the killer about this team right here, is that we heard for weeks and it was a fact like while a lot of teams were getting depleted and decimated by injuries, yes it was the Cowboys were getting healthier, as healthy as you could possibly ask for. Count O'Neill was inactive for that game. Beyond that, Michael gallops on ir, a couple other guys

beyond that, that was a healthy football team. Yeah, and you're expected to have some sort of injuries. But if you're telling me that key On O'Neill and Michael Gallup were the absolute difference in the way that offense looked, in the way that they were unable to stop the run, I would disagree with you. I don't think they would have made that big of a difference because, like Heckma just said, you were dominated through the first three and

a half quarters. It took you fifty nine minutes, sir, Now, maybe a little less than that, maybe fifty minutes of that football game to finally wake up and realize what the stakes were, that it was winner, go home, and it took too long for them to realize and ultimately that was the difference between being a playoff winner and a playoff loser. But I just want to find out what are we going to do with Theamark Cooper. I

think it's gonna be very important. How are we going to go forward with the weapons that we have, because he is legit a weapon. I think we would all agree. But if we're not gonna use him, if you know the twenty million dollars that's being paid to him, I think that's the one thing that they've got to figure

out how to go about that. Linebacker wise, I mean just pieces just looking at where we're going with all the names that we had on free that you read off yesterday from free agency, like how many of those guys are gonna be back? How many can you actually return? But when even after going through all of that, I guess the civil lining is, man, you gotta still have a good young squad. Will McClay, Steven Stephen Jones have

put together a damn good squad. I think if you trust your draft picks, if you trust boss Man Fat to be the future at cornerback, Obviously it's maturity issues things that he's gonna have to clean up. But guys like Naean, right, what role do they play into next season? So, I mean there's a promise that you have a foundation, you have a base, and obviously with the Bazuka, you

gotta just build around that. I feel as if Cowboys Nation is feeling so somber for a number of reasons, obviously not you know, showing up to putting out the performance that they that they displayed the other night, That obviously doesn't help. Then you you know, I'm pound that problem by watching the La Rams last night do what they did with their commitment to their roster, just like Dallas committed to their roster this year and their coaching staff.

But they had a totally flip side showing, right, they showed up the way in which you would have hoped Dallas would have showed up. So I think that was like a double stab right there. And you had a bad showing and you watch a team that pretty much made the commitment, like like you made this year to go all in with a with a stack roster, and they showed up and balled out. So you looked at that and said that should have been the way that

we that we played. So I think that's a double jab, But now the triple jab can't by by by right. The dog on Muhammad Ali tap tap tap on that forehead comes in the form of even though what you just mentioned, heckma, you have young talent coming back, even though you know that you're gonna have a good roster, maybe not as good as this year, but you're gonna have a solid roster going into the next year. Will McClay and his staff are gonna do a heck of

a job like they always do. You're still left with that feeling of then what because this year your roster was stacked. This year you're coach staff was stacked, and its steel left you empty handed. So it doesn't matter, just like you came in hype last week, you know, because of the how they ended the season at twelve to five. It doesn't matter with the regular season. The missing piece with this organization is what happens when the playoffs approach. Getting to the playoffs in stage one, but

then after that there's that empty that that bubble gusts. Right, we talked about the bubblegus. You have the bubblegus when the Cowboys get to the playoffs, and that's what nobody put their finger on right now. And that's what I think is really leaving all Cowboys fans feeling uneasy. Why why is that the case? Though? But why is it that much of a disparity, Because, I mean, you should have been excited about twelve and five. You should have been excited about the way this roster was and the

way that everything was. That's why Cowboys Nation was ready. And then you come out so flat in the fact that you're thirteen You're down thirteen oh before you can really even find your footing on either side of the football. Like, why is it so much of a disparity between the regular season and then of course the playoffs or is it just the factor that you can't be to good team. I don't think it was a disparity, actually my opinion.

I think the way they played in this game, unfortunately, is what we saw a lot of the time against better teams in the league. And I'm not saying this was a bad football team. This is a good team won twelve games, give them all the credit. But the stat about NFCS six and OZO six and six against the rest of the NFL, I mean, I think that

that does carry some weight. Again, it's not a bad team, but they had some problems that cropped up in the last half of the season, particularly offensively, that they never solved and it showed up in this game. And I think that's why we talked about yesterday why this game was considered a toss up, because you were playing one of the hottest teams in the NFL down the stretch went seven and two, has been to a Super Bowl. So this was always going to be a tough game.

But to your point, it's still the playoffs. It's still a home game that you earned that opportunity, and it is very deflating and disappointing to start the game the way they did and finished the game. No, it's kind of hard to argue that point, uh pee, because you look at the teams that they played with that went to the playoffs, Teams with a winning record, teams with

a quote unquote top tier quarterback. How they fared. Um, you know, going in the next year, what I'm gonna do is when we get the season schedule out, I'm gonna say which one is a real team and which one's a fake team. Okay, So that way, when we win, we can celebrate those and when we we win versus bums, we'll say, oh that was a bum we bump checked them. So let's not over celebrate on those, right, So when we win, Chris can play the Mario. Yeah. I mean

when it's when it's when it's a quality win. Its like in March Madness here, right, big quality resume win. Because I thought that the charges. Obviously, I thought that was a quality win. You know, you don't everyone said that Philly would win the division. I thought that was a quality win. And so look, the goalpost moves so much with Dallas Cowboy fans and the this this organization period twelve and five. Yes, Isaiah, I was happy as hell. You should you should be, you should be. No, I was.

I was happy to see this team battle back from the disappointment that they had from last season. The culture was the going theme of going into this season. You made a lot about about these guys not being able to bond be together. You saw the difference that that actually made this season. The brotherhood that they had. I

love seeing that camaraderie all throughout the season. But that does not negate the performance in the playoffs, because if you're gonna do all of that and then get to the playoffs and lay an egg, and then you look back over the NFL and see how many home teams won their games and you were not even close physically

in the game that you just played. That's that's the disappointment. Yeah, and that's why I didn't want to be And we can go back, you know, for fact check, but that's why I didn't want to be Debbie Downer when of these victories came along. But like y'all know, I wasn't hype about a lot of these victories because they were against opponents that you're supposed to beat. And everybody says, oh, it's still the NFL. Yeah, that's cool. However, there's there's levels.

There's levels of this. I don't care what your record says, there's levels. So the twelve and five, yeah, that sounds good, awesome, But when you look back at the record of the teams that you face, you lost against the teams that really matter. And that's what this record showed. You lost against the teams that actually matter, that can actually compete at the next level of competition, which is the playoffs.

And that's why I kept going back to saying, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa simmer down because those games they like, they're cool, they're cool, but they really don't matter because you're showing exactly who you are and how you're going to approach that type of that level of competition when you face those opponents. And the records showed that you back down or that you don't show up against that type of opponent.

And it showed up again the other day. Yeah, And I'm not trying to take away what they accomplished and some of the games that, you know, the first game of the season looking back, might have been their best performance. You know, they took they took Tom Brady and the Bucks to the wire. They went on the road against New England and I know they got blown out in

the playoffs, but won that game. And honestly, when they when they went to Minnesota and I know Minnesota and wounded up having a disappointing season, but they in that environment they won without Dak. For me personally, I thought, this is a special team. This is this is a team that's got a chance because they are a complete team and they could win it without Dak, win a big game on the road without Dak Prescott. So everything flipped after Denver, yep, I know when they when they

came the next week and blew out Atlanta. I know, I said, I felt like, well, okay, that was an aberration. But it turned out that it wasn't for the offense. There was some kind of blueprint whatever I was trying to internal. Everybody laughed at me whenever I asked that question. Too. Well, I think you're right, and I think a lot of people didn't care because it was forty three to three to the next week and you didn't think you thought

the Denver game was the exception, not the rule. Well, they were so machine like through the first six seven games of the season. You were exactly right that based on the full resume, you were like, well, they just didn't bring it today. And I think we talked about it. Everybody, even the best teams in playoff halfway off the teas have one of those hiccup games. It turned out not

to be a hiccup game. Yeah, And I can appreciate your you know, perspective on that because I think after the Denver game, you were one of the ones that was like, oh, you know, oh they see it, you know, Oh it's out there now, and everybody kind of followed that blueprint and said, look, this is who these guys are, and if we can show them this, we can actually slow this offense down. The numbers indicate that that obviously after the Denver game, that the production just went completely

through the floor. But it just when it comes down like you, I use a team like Cincinnati. Cincinnati for an example, They're a team that was trajectory wise, was going down. Obviously Burrows hurt, but then they bring in a wide receiver that is just game changing, transformative. And if you had played them, say second week of the season, that wouldn't have been a team that you would have thought in your head, Okay, this is a team that's on the way up. No, you beat a team, a

young team, young quarterback, young receiver. Look, our our whole thing is whether we build this rebuild, have to rebuild this roster. You gotta get game changing guys, and we didn't have a whole lot of game changes. You don't think this roster has game changing guys. I think Parsons was a game changer this year. Diggs was a game changer this year. You never had to run Curse as a as a game changer. At the beginning that nobody did.

You couldn't have. You couldn't have guessed the way that dan Quinn used him that he would have been the kind of player that we needed. How many game changers do you think are on each side of the ball? Almost teams like True like true game changer. I liked it. I would like to think offensively, you'd have to have two or three this team, this team has more than that. No, of course, well a lot of it has to be in the right spots too, utilize that properly defensive line.

That's why I think. That's what I'm saying that. So I don't think this roster is short of that. So, you know, just to address your point, I don't this roster is not short of game changers. The utilization of those game changers was not used. It wasn't not proper. This offense is one of the most explosive offenses and personnel wise in the league. You saw last night, what the explosives is supposed to look like you saw the

other night Kansas City. What an explosive offense, but personnel like we have is supposed to look like the utilization was lacking. That's what's lacking. Dak is elite, Zeke is elite, regardless if he was hurt or not, Coop is elite, CD's elite. Those are four game changers right there, right there. On offense, defensively, we had two young guys go all pro, two young guys go all pro, and then you had you got d Law, you got great. I would I would.

I would label these guys as game changers now, whether or not they cut that switch on or not, or whether or not they're put in positions to be game changers, it's something different. And I think that's where there's a there's a there's a separation by title, law, by production. Yeah, I mean because absolutely absolutely. Yeah. That's why I said Jamar Chase, when you think about him as a number one wide receiver, it's unquestionable his production in what he does.

I mean, he separates himself. I don't know if we had that. I mean, if I'm just looking, and this is the thing about what we do, and you make the evaluation when we evaluate teams, we get to see them play against other teams, and you're like, oh damn, we oh we don't have one of those. And the crazy thing is, and I agree with you in that regard, a little bit in that regard. But I think if you look at this and we're just talking about offense, don't just look at the offense. Was Zeke used the

way he needed to be used this year? I don't think you could, though, Okay, injury wise, Okay, that's fine, that's perfect fine, would you guys Zeke? Yes? No, no, no, okay, let's go to I might say more Pollard than Zeke. Zeke spent almost as Zeke was hurt, but Polar could have been utilized more correct where his game changing the ability? Yes, yes, all right? What about Coop? Was he utilized properly? No? No, it wasn't utilized properly. Okay, well I'm let's go ahead

and go to uh, let's go to CD. CD had a good year. It could have been better, could have been better consistent. Yeah, he dropped a lot of balls. Yeah, that was him. And he only had the six touchdowns, which I know that's kind of getting nitpicky, but you look at the guys ahead of him that are in the similar situation. Stefan Dix had ten, Jamar Chase had thirteen, Adams Jefferson. I mean, if you want him to be

that upper echelon. He's in year two. That's fine. Jamar Chase is a rookie special, best rookie receiver maybe of all time. Justin Jefferson did the same thing last year. He's still young, but you still want him to be that upper echelon. Yea, you want him to be the upper echelon. But again he wasn't used like he could have been used that right. Deebo Samuel had eight touchdowns from the backfield yep, and six receiving from the backfield in match. It's still match CD in terms of receiving

difference maker. Absolutely. Also, they're being put in positions to be successful, and that's the job of on offensive side of the ball, of your offensive coordinator. The reason why Michael Parsons had the year he had not only because he's a special talent, he's an absolute goon, but also he was put in the right position. Guess where by half By mid season dan Quinn figured out, oh, if I put him over the guard, they don't stand a freaking chance, right If I put these guys wide and white,

why nine techniques? If I put d Law in the inside and I put Michael Parsons on the inside. We can kill these guys. They were put in amazing positions, great players put in position to be successful. This organization has to figure out how to do that. On both sides of the ball. They took turns. They took turns often stepped up, defense flipped it, and the offense said, oh, y'all got it. What'll we'll just we'll just right, we'll hop in the back, We'll hopping the back. They didn't.

They didn't both say we're both driving this bus. So I know we got to go to break now. Is that the number one thing they got to fix this offseason? Schematically offensively figure out how to fix what they what went wrong the last ten games whatever. I think Kellen Moore has a lot of homework to do on himself. First half, killer Moore, first half of the season. Second half killer Moore is something that I don't really, really

really understand what was going on. And I think, and I mentioned this earlier, I said, he went in his bag. I don't know how much is left in that bag. Remember I said he needs to he needs to go find another bag. I don't know how much is left in that bag. He should You could tell in this offseason, he put a lot of work, he watched a lot of film, He analyzed himself, and he came out there boom boom boom boom boom boom, shooting his gun. Then he was out of Ammo. Yeah, who was out of Ama?

You go back to He tried to he tried to get a little bit creative this pass game, going back to the little reverse wishbone thing. But guess what I think we ran that three times. Came out of that formation, all three of them passes, all three of them passes. None of them were out of run. You got two linemen in the backfield, you're not gonna run come down hill. Yeah. The balance, the balance dissipated early in that game when we talked about it going in, like you have to

stay balanced. But you know, I just feel like you can have all the great intention in the world and your scheme can be absolutely great, but if your offense goes out and poo poo like that, I don't care what you call you know, that's that's It's like me. It's like me and my wife at the car dealership.

I know what we can afford. But see, she doesn't seem to know, you know what I'm saying, And I just feel like Keller Moore, he has plays that he wants to call, but the timing isn't gonna be there for that play to be called because your offensive line isn't giving you the time. You know. That's that's the aspect of his game that he has to work on. He has to work on his patients. Kellen Moore has zero patients, zero patients. And I think he's I think

he's a great creative mind. But I think his specialty, obviously, his comfort zone, and we've talked about this is down the field. He likes the big play, the big chunk plays. He he does a great job when there's a running game and he can run play action, he'll they'll pick you apart all day long. But when a running game is not present and it's no longer an option because you're behind, is he willing to work his way downfield? And in the stats in the film shows he's unwilling

to do that. He doesn't like that that's out of his comfort zone. He doesn't want to be patient and run a twelve to fourteen play drive. He wants it to be a six play drive. He might have a couple plays in it, then he's taking a shot. But when the defense is playing bim but don't break Bill Bilichick type defense. That's what we just faced Bill Belichick type. We will let you work your way down the field and then we're gonna try to tighten it up in

the red zone. That's what Sam Fran presented. And he said, Nah, we're still gonna take our shots. Now we're good Scholten nagger, you're wide open, but nah, we're running double undercons steps on the outside of Nah, Dak take the shot down

the field. Well, Dak immediately. Admittedly, Will Will say he's greedy too in some of the regard that he wants to And I think Hellman has alluded to like Kellen's style as like when you play Madden and you're frustrated and you just want to run go routes and try to make it all back up. So but I don't. I never felt like they were two behind where they couldn't have stuck to the running game. And I watched it again and I know they've they have struggled again.

I've talked about the old line winning up front, but like the puzzling thing and the frustrating thing watching it again was the one drive they had touchdown drive that was not benefited by a takeaway TP. Yeah, they ran it six times out of nine Zeke and Pollard and Zeke and Pollard wound up with twelve carries in the

entire game. And that one drive that was there was there was the balance and oh man, that was also the most comfortable Dak Prescott looked on that in that game and there was a severe lack of up tempo, there was a severe lack of creativity. It really did feel vanilla. It was a Vanilla attack and you had been waiting. One of the big questions when there was so much struggle at the end of the year was

I wonder if they're waiting. I wonder if they're gonna wait and they're gonna bring it whenever the playoffs come around, and they're gonna bring that bag. Kelly Moore has a bag. It's just fashed away for a little bit. But that wasn't the case. Vanilla's okay, though, Kyle like Vanilla is okay, and that's what I think he has to go back and address. Vanilla's cool, right. I don't need the sprinkles. I don't need the sprinkles. Let me be vanilla. Let me just work my way down. Let me just work

my way down. It's boring, it's freaking boring. It's freaking boring. But guess when you have that many weapons, that's what teams are gonna do. Teams are gonna chill out. Hey, we're gonna keep everything in front of a screw that. We ain't letting you be us over the top. Yeah, they have whatever they wanted them in in front of us. He has to work on that patience. That's what I'm talking about. Patience. He has to work on that aspect

of his game. It's okay to be boring, and guess what, if you're boring long enough, guess what, you're gonna be able to put some spice in your life whenever you have an opportunity to take advantage of it. When we come back here on Talking Cowboys, we've talked a lot about Callumore. We'll keep that conversation going. But is Dak Prescott still good enough to get this team to a conference championship and or Super Bowl in future years? We'll talk about that and more when we come back on

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one again. Oh nice. That means when you go out in the ball maybe not all. Let's go, let's that's that's why he came in Sleeping Today quickly, second segment of Talking Cowboys get by Steve to come in that. Oh it's good to have a smile on your face even after such a decip I needed that end. Yeah, we all needed a little bit. We're with you, Cowboys Nation. We feel you because it does. It feels like roundhog Day every once in a while, and it's it's not fun.

So we're gonna continue breaking it down for you and where we will be with you throughout the off season. By the way, I'll go ahead and plug this, but we are at eleven am Central time every Tuesday from here on out, it'll be Talking Cowboys eleven am Central. This is like, you know, I think I should have asked you how it feels when the season ends. It literally is like being on a roller coaster for six months and then somebody just saying, get off, get out

of here. It's so funny you said that, because body, you asked me that yesterday, and I very similar analogy. I said, it was like being on a lightning rod or something like a lightning bolt, riding that from July on and then it's just it stops. What a roller coaster feels like. Oh, that's twice twice in my life. Bad, never again bad. Anal that's for me. It's like being chased by bear for six months. A turn it around

and the bear isn't there anymore. So yeah, imagine taking a garbage bag and going to clean out your locker. Now that's that suck. That's a quick, sudden end, right, give it a big black garbage bag and say, get your stuff out of your life. Got to be black. I don't know what's up with that. Bad. It's just mouth brain. Sometimes it's true, though, and it's a it's a sudden ending. And immediately you get back to the

facility yesterday and it's it's a pause. You don't you don't hear anything going on down the hallway, Yeah, don't, honestly, And it was it was. There was nobody out at the Tostitos Plaza out front gorgeous facility, Monday night football game playing on the big screen, nobody there. Ohta is gonna strike back up and it we'll do it all over again. It's true, no doubt about somebody's throw the cow.

You throw your cowbo jersey across the room, It'll be there waiting on you when you're ready to pick it up before you come on back, come on back. All right, let's talk about Dak Prescott here. Let's talk about Dak. And Isaiah wants me to start with heckmum, you really do. Isaiah wants me to start with heckmus So I'm gonna start with that. Mom. I agree with what you're about to say because I know what you're about to say. But is Dak Prescott still a quarterback? Is he still

a quarterback that could get the job done? Yes, yes he is? Why is that? Yeah? Look, you know that's obviously with the head coach and the quarterbacks. They keep all the winning records. Right now, that one in three playoff record, that ain't looking good, and you have got to improve on that going into this offseason. It's got to be the emphasis on the running game has to be there, and that's for any quarterback. You look at Colin Murray yesterday, you look at any quarterback, that that

balance your running game has to be there. Zeke coming out saying that he had a PCL injury this all year that is what gave me the mystery meet bubble Guts because to me, he was a decoy all year long. He was a decoy. He was an extra blocker. That is an indicative of how bad your offensive line is. And anytime we saw TP that was actually the offense running, you know, So those things have got to be corrected.

But I think you know Dak's numbers. Obviously, the the NFL is it's a new it's a thrown passing league, so everyone's numbers is escalated. Me and p have talked about how the numbers, rushing numbers have completely gone into the tank. There's got to be an identity with this team that has to be addressed right the way offensively, if Kellen Moore leaves, if he stays, whatever it is, we've got to figure this part of it out. Is it the running gun or we completely just ground and pound?

Which one is it going to be? Because we've got to figure this. We got to figure this thing out because we're leaving this guy out to dry, especially on those games where we don't have any balance. I've never gotten Dak confused with Aaron Rodgers. I've never gotten Dak confused with Tom Brady. I know where his strong suits are. He's a freaking leader, right, That's what he is. He is a blue collar quarterback in a white town. And you just better keep it real with yourself on that.

And if you can build around him, he can get you there. But if you're just saying, hey, Dak, and I know I hear what you're saying at your chee, if you're gonna pay him like that, then he's got a lead like that. Whatever the whatever, the outlaid for everybody, the way they're getting paid. I just feel as though Dak is a quality quarterback. You cannot give up on him.

And if you were, if you did it, you would be stupid because you go back to Sunday, If Dak played for the forty nine is, you probably lose by forty points. If Jimmy Garoppolo plays for the Dallas Cowboys, he throws four interceptions, period. So dances and I like, hell yeah, I like the way you brought up the run game. And I've been looking at this this is These are some of the totals running the football in Wildcard weekend, look at the teams that moved on and

one football games. Eli Elijah Mitchell, of course for San Francisco had ninety six yards, Devin Singletary had eighty one yards. Deebo Samuel added seventy two to Elijah Mitchell's ninety six. Both Sony Michelle and Cam Akers were over fifty yards apiece. Joe Mixon had a fantastic season and ran the ball for forty six yards in that ball game. They all have running attacks, and the Cowboys running attack had sixty

yards prior to the final play. So it does. It plays a massive role in how Dak Prescott's able to run this offense, how the play action is then working, and it does. It makes an impact. And if a quarterback has that eliminated, that rugg taken out from underneath them, it makes your offense one dimensional and you have to find another way to get it done. And really, I didn't think there was another outlet for Dak Prescott to have.

What say he wasn't good, I will say that he didn't play well, but he didn't necessarily have a whole lot of help either. Proud of you heck, he standing strong. I'm proud of you, man. I know you love your Dak. I know you love your Dak. Man. Man, you know I think you kept in one hunt it right there. I think that was well said. We should clip that help me. I agree with everything that you said. I

think that Dak is a very capable quarterback. I believe that Dak is and should remain the leader of this team. I do believe that Dak has to elevate his leadership in the form of the expectations for this entire organization. And when I say that, I mean that there should be seventeen check boxes. There should be seventeen boxes that he has to check. Boom seventeen gay boom boom boom. Okay, that's cool. We're gonna take care of these. These ones are the ones that are necessary to propel us to

the ones that really matter. And I feel as if if that comes from your leader on the field, your quarterback, then that expectation of the entire offense and team will elevate. It's one thing to hear from the coach, It's another thing to hear from the player. When you think about the NFL, you think about the head coach, and then you think about who your quarterback, right, So those two

guys have to be speaking the same language. When I was when I was in New England, I was wondering because when I was in here Dallas, we won ball games. We was kicking it. Oh, we was turning up you know what I'm saying, Locker room live, all that kind of stuff. And then carried over through the weekend. Who was out clubing? And when I got to New England, it was like, all right, guys, good game, come back in on Monday. Hand, we got film to study, get

ready for the next team. Look what the heck man Like, we just won a ball game. But it didn't feel like you just want a ball game. You just feel like check that box. You're supposed to do that. That's just your job. Your job is to show up and take care of these regular season game. We're preparing our minds for the next level. And I don't think that that step has been taken here obviously, it's been with how many years, twenty five years since in twenty six years.

So the psychology in the communication between the head coach and that quarterback has to be on the same wavelength and I'm not sure if it's there yet. I don't think. I can't think about an instance this year where we heard any any dialay between the head coach nor Dak in reference to postseason. And I'm not saying that's something they should be verbally just talking about all the time. But I didn't even get it inkling that there that their mindset was higher goals than just the regular season,

like this was the expectation. I felt as if it was like, hey, we did a great job to day when I'm like, I never got the sense that it was like, yeah, no, good, We're preparing for the next week. I never got that vibe. And I may be wrong.

I'm just telling you what I feel, right, but I don't believe that there's an instance where you got this, the feeling that these guys are there there there, the mind is set on this is we're supposed to be doing this to these teams, and we need to be have our mindset on what are we going to face

when we get to the playoffs. Well, and even if there was a little bit of that from Dak and from McCarthy and the leaders of this team, even if there was a sliver of that as the mindset with the postseason in mind, that's still not enough because not only do you have to have that mindset yourself, you have to have a more locked in mindset than all thirty one other teams in the NFL if you really want to achieve the goal and really get to the

expectation in which this organization requires them. Absolutely, but I think that it has to start somewhere. Whether it starts there or whether it starts somewhere else, I don't know, but that that level of expectation has us. And you hear it, right, you hear it in camp? Oh, you know what I'm saying. Our goals get to the NFC, you know, a championship NFC when the NFC East, and then you know, get to the champion I hear you, I hear you. But what are your actions saying? What

are your actions saying? Like have fun when your ball games, but then like hey, your mindset, you should feel the vibe that all the when they losing. Given the Cowboys lose a game, what do we hear referees like you know what's being said, you know what's being said behind the scene when you listen to some of these other teams, listen to the leadership, listen to where their conversations are leading to. Aaron Rodgers wins a game, is he hyped

about that game? Where he talking about like what's gonna happen down the road? Ye? Like, it's just the futurists. It's what am I trying to attain? And I've gotten be enough here you beat me up. I'm like, dang it as a you know, like you are you You're so hard on these guys. I'm like, yeah, because this is not this isn't the goal. The regular season is not the goal. That's that's that's set you up to

be in position to go take care of business. That's why losing that Arizona game was so important, right because we want to know you still wouldn't get the first round by because you know, because of green Bay, because of green Bay, but positioning yourself the best you can for the playoff run, because that's all that matters in

this league. Nobody cares. They could have went freaking like the dog on New England Patriots went sixteen and no or whatever it was, right, they went undefeated season, lost the Super Bowl. Yep, they don't give a dog on about that regular season. I guarantee you that nobody wears an AFC or NFC Championship ring. Nobody does you throw that in the clo You might even give it to your auntie. There's one thing that matters in this league, and it is walking away with the dog On Trophy

in a ring. That's the only thing that you walk away with your stats and you walk away with your jewelry, because only two things you walk away within your career. Now, absolutely, man, that is I've heard so many Hall of Fame like Chris Carter just said it on television the other day, I trade my yellow jacket in for a Super Bowl ring any day, and God said, and they made said. Yeah.

So the level of success that comes with the Lombardi for players that sacrifice so much, you're right, you know it's it's I think that when you have an organization that has that stayed in at eight that five hundred level throughout seasons. Man, you celebrate when you get above that. But the organizations that you're talking about that, hey man, all right, we want a game. Come on, let's move

on to the next thing. That's a couple of Super Bowl rings to boot to go with all of that, you know, So it's a formula that works, and that's where we got to come up with man which which is which formula works? Yeah, I'm made a lot of great points, Isaiah. And as as Heck was talking, I was like a bobblehead. I was just doing this. You could just tap the time, because I mean, I believe in Dak. I've been on Dak for for years because of his work ethic, because I think he truly wants

to be great. The second half of the season was completely different from him after he came back from the strain calf. And I'm not saying the injury was a major factor there, but we talked about schematically, there were some things there. I don't know exactly what the answer

is why. I don't know if anybody really knows exactly what has gone wrong with this offense, because I think one of the things with Dak that impressed me so much early in the season was just how quick, how how advanced he's gotten in terms of complete command of this offense. Boom boom, boom, read reread falls out, you know, total command. We didn't see that as much and and I think the running game is a huge factor there.

I'm not putting it all away from Dak Prescott because if you watch clips of guys breaking it down, Dan Orlovsky, whoever, like, there there's miss throws, there's miss reads, there's all there is that stuff. But again, it helps to have things around you a little more stable. And I've said this team was the best team I've Cowboys team I've seen

since O seven. I might amend that and say sixteen, even though Dak was a rookie, even though Zeke was a rookie, and they were a young team, because they had that offensive line so dominant and something that they could just lean on and just moving people out of the way. And again I'm not putting it all on the offensive line here, but that that's not the strength it used to be. No, They've spent all season trying to figure out the right five, the most effective group,

and they never got that continuity. And I think the running game and not having that and some of it's Kellen Moore maybe not sticking to it enough, but that to me was a huge factor in why this offense, to your point to Kyle, was not as effectiveness down the stretcher. Yeah, that offensive line was probably the spot that I circled the most throughout the season because even

the defense in the game. We talked about it yesterday in the game on Sunday, twenty three points allowed by your defense, even after the slow start, even after the big play the Deebo Samuel following the turnover, it wasn't enough. It should have been enough to get your offense and give them a chance to win the football game, and they didn't do that. All right, when we come back here on Talking Cowboys, we wrap up our final regular

season episode with a positive note. When we return right after this, I want to use what the pros us. How about the official men's skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black. Right now, you can get the Jack Black Starter, a curated collection of Cowboys locker room favorites, for just ten bucks with free shipping. The starter includes four Jack Clack skincare favorites, plus a full size and tense therapy lip bomb. Go to get Jack Black dot com slash

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could size up a cowboy by three simple factors. Decrease in his hat, the bend of his brim, and his unbending attitude a man, Stetson didn't just protect him from what life through at him. It projected a rugged, unstoppable spirit. Stetson hats are still American made with pride. Right here in Texas, there's still the unofficial crowd of all self respecting cowboys, and Stetson is proud to be on the

field with America's team. Find a retailer nearest to you at Stetson dot com, slash Cowboys to talk in Cowboys Breaking a pain. Yeah, whether you're watching from home or you're cheering in the stands. With or lenses, you can see every exciting play book and appointment at your local Esselor experts and see what esselor can do for you. See more Two more eslore here on Talking Cowboys. Isaiah stand back with the Mike flip the final one of the regular season and the eyebrow and eyebrow that wasn't

the flip that was like a Mike slap. Players, get out of here? What is this? Heck Harrison, Rob Phillips, Chris Beam, I'm Kyle Yeoman's and guys, I want to I want to bring some positivity, I said Isaiah second ago. What's that what's the positive? What's positivity? I want to bring some sort of what does that even mean? Right now? I know nobody, nobody. I'm trying to figure out, what are you about to do? I want to hear your

favorite part of this season. It could be on the field, it could be off the field, it could be a part of these shows. I want to hear your favorite part to wrap up this season because we had a lot of fun in here. We had a lot of fun throughout the year on different shows, different things, different games. It all kind of just boiled down. What was your

favorite part. We'll start with Isaiah. The culture changed that Dad Quinn brock Okay and the hope on that side of the football alone or just in general the whole team and affected the whole team. I think it gave this. I think without dan Quinn there wouldn't be No. Twelve and five and there wouldn't have been the hope going into the playoffs that this team and organization had. I think he was a complete culture shock for in a good way, and obviously it showed up on the field.

So dan Quinn most definitely Heckles damn, That's where I was going. But Dan Quinn. You know what, man, not to be too much you about all of this. Man, I think just doing this podcast with you guys each and every day, and the approach and professionalism that you guys have, I mean, it's it's always humbling. I bring my best shit every time I'm coming here with y'all, and it's just you know, Cowboy Nation and everybody that over the seasons, you know that have embraced me and

taken me in. I man, this is you know, don't wake me up, because this is this is crazy to be in this environment, to be around so many great people. I mean not only just you guys, but you know Chris Beam, Rosa Medina, Uh, Derek Eagleton, Nick you know Nick Eatman. It's just it's just a lot of it's just you're You're surrounded by so many quality people that it's it's it's intimidating. It's intimidating, and so you try

and find your place in it. And you gotta be badass each and every day when you come into a studio that you know that David Hellman is gonna walk into after you, so you gotta be funky baby. That Dave brings a high standard co sign that love you heck you got Yeah, you know, everybody brings it every day. It's a lot of fun. Um. I hope they can keep dan Quinn. I don't know. He's got about eighteen job interviews for head coaching vacancies around. A lot of

teams are interested in him and for good reason. Um, that's tough. I would say, just watching Michael Parsons play football and listening to Michael Parsons every day, he's my favorite guy to talk to during the week. UM. I think you listen to him after this game Sunday and you you you hear him talk and talk about accountability and we got to clean up penalties and it's so it's not it's not just his play on the field, but you listen to him talking, you're thinking this, this

young guy is gonna be a leader of this team. UM, And he kind of already is. Um. He's definitely a building block and a huge bright spot in what they've done this season. And if they without him, with all the guys they were missing early in the season, he really kind of saved this defense in a lot of ways early on. He really did. And he's I mean,

there's so many expectations around him. Whether or not he lives up to the numbers that he put up in a rookie season, that's gonna be tough because he did set such a high bar. But yeah, I agree with you, Michael Parsons, Dan Quinn, this podcast and how much fun it is to do this each and every day. Chris, do you have a favorite moment throughout the season? My favorite moment? Yeah, yeah, I got a favorite moment. What is it five o'clock? Why when five o'clock rolls? Yeah? Yeah,

five o'clock is always got a lot of fun? Can go outside? Is it? Is it usual? Uh? This is my favorite moment. It is straight up when or lose pick The cowboys picked the Vikings, and we're gonna let it happen and say it with your chest. You're on talking cowboys, b We'll start with you who you got on? Before I answer that real quick, I'm gonna go ahead and say it with my chest. Man as they are stand back, you stand back. You about to get burnt in the forty yard dash from your boy be Church.

I can't wait, I can't wait. We all go burn out the question with the cowboys. They're gonna take this stuff. It's over. Kurt Cousins ain't got nothing for us. All the mule's buried on them because nobody in there. Nobody was so funny that that that that is That was probably my favorite moment. I love that was so fun that Chris and Barry. The franking thing is. It took Heckma probably a good like five minutes be like, hold on a second, that that that's Barry. I think I

took Yeah, yeah, Heckma realized it. I was like, that's Barry. And then it took me even more. Wait a second, I was actually Barry. I don't think I identified it until he said the players and that I was like, oh, you sneak. He's like, he's like, don't do this, don't do this. He only said that like five times. But I didn't think at that point he didn't really know who it was. You had to do it. You thought he was just challenging you. Taking Barry side like that.

That was probably my favorite. That was my favorite. That was hilarious. That calmed down fight, oh and all the other great Here we go, it's off season, so we got to get the race going. Danny McCrae start jumping on the wrong thing. So calm down, fight. Oh so many fun moments, my I mean, you guys hit so

many great points. Mine is really the interaction we got to have with Cowboys Nation this year as opposed to what we were having last year because it was all virtual last year, we didn't really get to do a whole lot. We got to go to trading camp this year, we got to do some outdoor stuff. This year. We had fans on our pickup segments every single week and it was so much fun. So for real, Cowboys Nation, you were the best. I've been very sentimental and thankful

over the last couple of days. I'm not I'm not okay voice now that that's called losing my voice, still trying to get it back. That's a great point. And also you got to credit this football team for giving us a chance to have fun, because it wasn't fun to talk about this team last year. And obviously the COVID was a huge factor too, And that's why the way this season ended is so disappointing. Because the team did have a good season. It's angry because you had

higher expectations last year. We were talking about the draft in like three weeks before the season. So yeah, we uh, we are so much. We are so thankful to be a part of this, be a part of Cowboys Nation, and of course we'll be here throughout the off season. Eleven am Central Times on Tuesday, Tuesdays Tuesdays. From here on out, it is Talking Tuesdays, popping tomorrow nothing, Yes, Isaiah's on tomorrow for like a media Oh yeah, we're gonna do tomorrow. Cool. Well, Isaiah will be on there,

so that's fun. Yeah, I was popping tomorrow, will be on tomorrow. And I think Kyle, you're on on Thursday. Oh I am oh you are there? You go, Eric News Kyle, great, guys. All right, well I'll see you on Thursday for whatever show it is. But for the final time in the regular season for Talking Cowboys, presented by Tostitos, for Chris being, Rob Phillips, Isaiah standback, heck Ma, Harrison, I'm Kyle, y'all, and saying so long, We'll see you

next time. Thanks again, Cowboys Nation. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.