Talkin' Cowboys: What Went Wrong In 2017?

guys are grinders. But this this is our first show as we start our new weekly show schedules, which will be Tuesdays at eleven am. So hope you can join us every Tuesday as we get ready for the twenty eighteen Dallas Cowboys football season. We're starting fresh. We're starting fresh, start fresh. We're one to know today, guys, you're one to know every day. We're winning today. We are winning today.

But the Cowboys did have a winning season for the twenty seventeen season, if you can believe it or not, because you might have whip last you might be suffering from that right now after what a season it was. But of course they ended nine and seven after six zo shutout victory in Philly dominant, just absolute wreckage. Yeah, Mickey's just busier throwing away all his papers he collected over the season. He's throwing away twenty seventeen. No, I

thought I was doing. I was printing out. I was on the twenty seventeen schedules and I printed out the postseason. But it printed out postseason for twenty seventeen instead of twenty eighteen. Unnecessary for this team, you know. David Moore, I think, mentioned this this morning on the radio of the Dallas Morning News. This team, when I didn't even think about this. This team finished the season winning four out of five games. Yeah, I feel like that. They

were nine and seven, five and one in the division. Yeah, does it feel that way? And the shame of it was if they had won five straight, they still wouldn't have in the playoffs. Yeah. The thing about it is, though we kind of were in a season where it was three different seasons. We talked about this the other day. Our last show before we went to Philadelphia was just how the the different you know, it's a it's a it's funny. It's sixteen games, doesn't appear like very much,

but in the in the grand scheme, of things. The way twenty seventeen went, it was you know, it was it was broken into Coaches usually don't look at as breaking it up into sections, but the way it went, it really was broken up for them by the off the field stuff, the court cases, you know, all the things that we talked about on we talked about on Friday. You know that it's just it was too much. It really was too much to have to overcome a lot of the things that they did, you know, And that's

that's ultimately why you're not in the playoffs. Yeah, and you know you're sitting here the second day of the off season, if you would yesterday the players, of course were here emptying their lockers and coach Garrett will speak today at one thirty pm Central Time live on Dallas Cowboys dot com. But what I'm saying is this will this will affect the off season greatly. You're gonna have coaching talks right away. Sure, you're gonna have free agency

coming up in March. Combine, y'all are going right, So many of this season that we just dealt with is going to directly impact this off season as far as just the storylines that you're probably all going to get sick of pretty quickly. Well, the finality of it all, Yeah, when the season ends. And you know, last night a great example of finality was you know, Oklahoma and Georgia and Clemson and Alabama. I mean, you know, you're in you're in the limelight, and all of a sudden that

season comes in. Now you're you know, if you're on the losing side of that, you're kind of going, Okay, what just happened? And you're like, okay, now, you know, you try and take a breath and reevaluate where you're at. And you mentioned it today, you know, there's a lot of guys in that locker room yesterday that will not be here with this team, and we some coaches that will not be here with this team, you know, I mean,

it's that's what football really is really all sports. You know, there's change every year, and you try and do everything you can to set you up so you don't you're not the team that you're still the team that's playing. You know, that's the whole idea of this thing. You want to be the team that's the last one standing. And you know, the Cowboys have got a lot of things that they have to do to get to that point. I said, yeah, last week we talked about it. I

break the season up into three chunks. I thought the first month where they were really challenged by some defenses up front, and then they kind of found their rhythm offensively, and then that last stretch when Zeke got suspended and came back, there were some struggles there, especially offensively. Defensively they played well, but I think to Tay's point, you know this time last year, you lose in the second round and it was really disappointing, but I think the

feeling was you build off some things. There's some plenty to build on, Mick, and this year you look at this team and there's a lot to fix, and I think offensively specifically, you look at it and you've got to figure out how can you find more consistency with the talent that you have up And it speaks more

to more than just being healthy at certain spots. Are being suspended or being suspended right absolutely, you real quick question, yes, the suspension or the poor offensive line play which was the biggest for you. Poor offensive line play, and no one wants to talk about that. Everybody wants to talk about, well, what it does do? Right? What did Dak do? No? I'm with you and with you and and the you know,

the narrative out there is all that other stuff. But if you want to look at what happened, and all you had to do is watch the game on Sunday, the offensive line right, the left side right, look at all the plays that went wrong. There was folding, there was blitz is that they couldn't pick up. I mean, one after another after another, and you sit there and go, well, how in the world did they end up driving ninety nine yards for a touchdown? Crazy? It was a miracle.

But if you look at all the other possession that's what was going wrong. It wasn't that they don't have, you know, very imaginative routes the quarterbacks not accurate, or whatever else you want to come up with. Look at what happened on that offensive line. We were talking about this yesterday in the office, just hanging out. If this team did sneak into the playoffs and they go to LA,

that would have been the game right at the Rams. Boy, that's a bad matchup for you upfront with those guys Aaron Donald, Robert Quinn against an offensive line that very well still could have been without Tyron Smith and probably Jonathan Cooper the entire left side of your offensive line, because because Cooper left the game and mixed right that the offensive line, They've still got tons of talent, but injuries and they were inconsistent times, and that really did

affect the way the entire offense function. Dak, the receivers, the running game, everything. It's not all on the offensive line, but but you do view that as the foundation of your football team, and it didn't play as well this year for a lot of different reasons. Yeah. No, and I see what you're saying, brand because a lot of people have kind of summed up this season into suspension and injuries. Yeah, and a lot of the injuries on the offensive line, you quickly discovered that you didn't have

the depth for it. No, and that's where I think the misevaluation maybe started in Oxnard. Did you have the right depth? You know, they felt like they protected themselves with Byron Bell, who's a veteran player. They went out, you know, last year they got Jonathan Cooper. He ends up being your starter. But it took you a while to kind of figure out what you were doing at left guard. You'd really didn't have an adequate backup for

the left tackle. You didn't know the left tackle was going to struggle with injury all year, and your right tackle he might have started off slow, but he got better. But by that time you'd already lost a couple of games along the way, and so that was really, you know, the one thing. You thought that the one constant would be the offensive line, and it really it was the one thing that held you back. You know, we look at the suspension stuff and you kind of go back,

did they run the ball well enough? Was it the threat and all that? No, it really wasn't. But did they run it well enough? It was pretty good? Pretty good? Wasn't It wasn't terrible. But it's that presence that zeke. It's yeah, exactly. Mickey's talked about that you don't have

that threat, and he's absolutely right. When I look at this season, I don't look I don't look at it as the I don't look at as what happened with the receiver, even though the receivers, you know, I just keep going back to my head of if there was going to be a Dak regression, what was it going to be? Yeah, it's going to be because Dak, the players around Dak weren't good enough or didn't play well enough.

And I think that Dak concluded, he'll admit it. You know, the things that he had to do mechanically in the pocket weren't good enough. You know, some throws he had to make. Does Bryant ran a beautiful route for him the other day on early in that football game, and you got to reward him with the ball at him to you know, make sure that he you know, he runs it on the sidelines, he runs out, he gets the defensive back to spin. You know, he's at a

position and all that ball's too high. So you're like going, okay, well, now you don't know what your problems are. You get you finally get a route that is great, and you get a ball it's too high. But protection probably wasn't great, you know. I mean, there's so many things that factoring

what goes on with your season. Yeah. Absolutely. I really liked what Terrence Williams said yesterday in the locker room talking about you know that him, dakas all the guys kind of spoke on the plane about what they need to do in the off season as far as to build the chemistry. A lot of people keep talking about this chemistry, and they said, hey, we just need to know what Dak stream when he's coming out of the scramble.

I want to know where he's going. They have to know these things, and I think that's great self awareness on their part to understand that, Well, you need to figure things out. You need to figure them out. And I don't know if if running routes and you know, one hundred degree weather every day is going to be the answer, but you know, it's a start. That's what you have to do. You have to evaluate where you're at.

You have to evaluate, Hey, what are we doing incorrectly? Now, Traitman and Michael Urban will say it was route after route after route. You know I knew. Eight Men will tell you I knew that when I threw the ball with certain coverage, if it was here, I needed to throw the ball there, you know. I mean, Eightman's one of the most accurate quarterbacks ever played the game, so it's a little bit easier for him than Dak, but you still, yeah, being on the same page, I think

it's the right direction. Let's see if they follow through on that. That's going to be the key. The other thing Terrence said that I thought was interesting was Scott Linahan calls great plays, Jason Garrett, the offense is fine, we just gotta get it done. Derek Dooley. Derek Dooley, he said, you know, as players, we've got to execute better. I think it all goes together, and think coaches are going to look at themselves and say, we've got to

do a better job. What your sigh is making noises, not sighing at what you're saying, finish, I'm sighing at the whole thing. That all this stuff came up after eight games. It all came up after they went six games in a row, scoring at least twenty eight I thought, so the chemistry all of a sudden just disappeared. I thought you'd like what Terrence said, because it's it comes down to yeah, but it did about none of that. But none of that made any difference in the first

eight games. And it just fell apart. They had six games in a row where no one talked about Dak not having chemistry with this receiver and this receiver not running routes. They were scoring twenty eight points a game and it and it just fell apart. So what happened, that's what's got to be answered. Yeah, okay, then then just help me educate me then on your autopsy. I mean, I think I got you to say the offensive line

was the biggest problem. And if you look at but I'm trying to I just saw something where somebody had a stat the game's tyrant. Smith played and finished right in the games. He didn't right. The difference in the sacks right was astronomical. Right, pressures too, and the pressures. Yeah, and once you lose, once you didn't have Zeke, then team said, you know what, we're blitzing, right, Dak Prescott's not going to beat us. Right, they made Prescott, and

then all of a sudden the chemistry fell apart. And then all of a sudden, no one knew how to run routes, and then the offensive coordinator didn't know how to hall plays. You know it. It was. It was fine until that point and then all and then we get all these different narratives of what exactly happened, and I think we miss what exactly happened. Smith's defensive line didn't play well, Zeke wasn't there, and things start falling apart on defense on offense to the point where I mean, look,

here's what I posed yesterday in my column. If I'd have told you this defense would have finished in the top eight, you'd have said there you said top ten. Last Yeah, top ten? I mean yea, And they finished eighth. Yeah. And a lot of their points where returned, had five touchdowns returned U turnovers returned for touchdowns. So the defense did its job, which I know they struggled in those three games. There was a struggle, but there was also

a struggle on offense too. Your points valid. And I brought this up last week from Arizona in Week three to the game before Zeke got suspended. It's a six game stretch again against Kansas Central City. They put up thirty one point six points per game. That's I mean, that's what they were doing last year. Injuries, suspensions, every the whole dynamic of the offense changed when they lost Tyron and they lost zek. But they did get Zeke

back on Christmas Eve, and the offense struggled. Now, I know, Tyron played one series. I think people point to that and say, well, why why didn't he fix everything? You know, with two games to go, I think if people, I know, we said it, we thought the offense would go back to normal, yes, and it didn't. It didn't. And if you didn't miss two field goals, it's twenty one eighteen

and you got a chance at the end. The way the defense was playing in that Seattle game, I understand making the field goal there, and then you know you're like, okay, but if you got the touchdown, that would have been even better. But you know, if you score the touchdown, you're thinking, Garrett's got to be thinking, I'm gonna get the ball back here. Yeah, I'm gonna get a chance to win this football game, and I'm gonna put it

in Dan Bailey's hands to win it, you know. And unfortunately that to me, it's funny because you look at these the players that they lost, you know, the Sean Lee injury. I mean, we made a lot about that. I just wonder if Tyren Smith was the most important piece in this thing. Was he the most important because maybe you could have outscored people when you struggled on defense because they had the firepower on offense to do that. But when you can't block up front and you can't

run your plays, accurately. Then I'm sure that affects how the offensive coordinators call and plays, not how to protect the left tackle. You're protecting yourself instead of being aggressive. Right. Game the other day was very similar. It wasn't quite as dramatic as the Atlantic game with the protection upfront with allowing however, Mace it was eight nine sacks in that game, but it was similar and that they just they weren't functioning offensively without him left tackle, that left

side of the line. Dak was inconstant disarray and pressure the other day, which is so odd because you know, of course injuries, you can't prevent those. But Tyren Smith was just a guy who just you always counted on, no doubt, you know, And I'm not I'm not saying that he didn't do anything. I mean, the man is an iron man. What he played through this past season I cannot even fathom. But what I'm saying is, you know that was just something you never even banked on,

like this could be an issue. Yeah, well, last year it was one of your most consistent groups. The five guys that played last year were one of the big reasons why. And I think that that's why they won that Award at that Yeah, yeah, they were. They were the best offensive line in the National Football League, and this year they were really you know, even with even with Pro Bowl All Pro caliber, can't say they were caliber players at guard and at center. It wasn't enough.

You know, you needed him to be the lynchpin to kind of hold everything together there, and they never again, they just never the whole season was there. There was not the consistency at the left tackle spot because of the injuries, and then you know, you had the left guards problems, and then the right tackle. It was you know, he developed along the way. You kind of felt like if there was going to be an issue, that it

was going to be at the right tackle. Yeah, and it really wasn't at the right Well, what you said, you're right about how Lyell played probably his best football down the stretch, and he wasn't healthy. He had a bulging disc in his back and was missing practice time, and I thought, you know, I think the experience he got playing rusher after rusher who's really good in the NFL, I think helped him by the end of the season. Yeah,

so that's something to build off of. But I liked what you said earlier in the segment about how I don't know if you can ask for a better supporting cast than what Dak got as a rookie for a rookie quarterback. Yeah, best offensive line in football, best running back in football, you know, and he don't have Zeke for six games this year. You don't have the same line. And those are the results. And Dad can be better too, But the supporting cast was just different this year for him,

no question about it. Yeah, he had the shoulder way too much. He didn't and he did it for the first part, Remember he did. No one was sitting here talking about Dak struggling. We were talking about boy, he's putting his team on his bat, saving the season, right, saving the season, and then all of a sudden, nile he doesn't know what to do. Yeah, yeah, well we know what to do and we know that we need to take our first break here. When we I'm back, we will have much more to talk about. It is

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is talking cowboy. A true cowboy loves his freedom, and Tommy John gives you that feeling of freedom where it counts with a contour pouch and fabrics you can barely feel. Shop exclusive Cowboys underwear at Tommy John dot com Forward Slash Cowboys for twenty percent off your first order Tommy john dot com Forward slash Cowboys. Thank you, Rob. Perfect segue here because normally when we enter the third segment, Rob joins us with a Twitter poll, and we've had

lots of them. You've been very consistent over the season. I appreciate it, Rob, We all appreciate it. Mickey's learned to vote, enjoy them and vote, and you learn something new this year. So are we ahead of herself? Where we getting ready for a poll? You love them? No, we're getting ready to go over some of these polls. Oh yes, and the poles to the pole see how accurate the fans were and us we voted as well, and we discussed each of them. So yes, our vote

was probably one tenth. Probably that's a good sign. We're hearing from from everyone out there who listens to us and keeps us going. So appreciate it all. Right. On August twenty seventh, twenty seventeen, we asked which roster position are you most concerned about? Depth wise? The options here were linebacker, offensive line backup, quarterback, and defensive end. Which

one do you think? One? Linebacker, offensive line backup, quarterback, and defensive end I think the quarterback probably would have won that one. Backup quarterback, I bet. Yeah, Look Mac, I'm not looking. Don't cheat over here. I didn't know you had the answer. I'm gonna say backup quarterback too. I can't remember that. Linebacker one, and then offensive line. These are smart fans. Obviously five percent went to backup quarterbacks, twenty five percent to defensive end. So hey, you guys

were right. Linebacker depth was a concern this season, but probably the thirty percent the voted offensive line. We're really smart. I've been a line that backer depth. A lot of that had to do. We talked a lot of Jalen Smith in camp. Yeah you know, yeah, the rant coming in, so yeah, I could see that. What was what did okay? That turned? I mean that would be number one for me now, yeah, right, well they had two spots to

fill true, Yeah, guard and then the tackle. What was going to happen in wing tackle was a big discussion too, which is funny since I bet last year, if you want to know who to get rid of, it would have been Doug Free through the day, our friend of the show, Doug Free. That's right, he's a good friend. Keeping on the offensive line on September four, So we were actually we were way wrong on that one. Then, right, yeah, y'all were way wrong. Okay, got you go ahead? Back

up quarterback. They were just fine to say that was before that was before I started voting. I bet, I think said one temp. Yeah, yeah, would you figure out we had polls like in Thanksgiving something like that? Last week it was thanks thanks for listened to a show at Lumbus Day or something like that. Still doing the writing things. Yeah, it's been consistent. You're the best. On September four, we asked who would you started Left Guard

based on what we've seen in the preseason. Of course, the only two options here where Jonathan Cooper and Chaz Green. I think I think I voted Chaz Green. I definitely voted Chaz Green, and I was right Chazz. Were you right? Yeah? Actually got hurt. Listened to the show and you both did. Say Jonathan Cooper, we did, yep, and he won that boat seventy six percent. Twenty four percent went to Chads Green. Oh,

were visions history and ours to the show? Seem September fifth was the show if you guys wanted to tune in, You guys both say why, you know why here we go. We thought we thought they needed Chaz Green to be the backup swing tackle. We were being greedy. We were lucking at it as a top six, yeah, not a top five. You guys thought this was a basketball team. That's embarrassing. I can't remember that. Yep. A lot of shows, Brian. No, it's like, how stupid is that? To me? It's okay,

This next one might make you feel worse. The breakout player this season will be. On September fifth, we asked Cowboys breakout player this season will be Bryce Butler, Lyle Collins, Jalen Smith, or MALIEK. Collins. Bran, you already know the answer, oh, I said Malie Collins. He might have been the best looking defensive player in camp, him and Hitchens. Byron Jones. Byron Jones was in there too. Now, yeah, I mean one camp MVP in our poll that we did. I know,

that's what's that one? See that's for twenty some odd days. I thought Byron Jones practice pretty damn well. Yeah he did intercept in the ball. Yeah, they everywhere, it's like the whole Yeah they were they were huh but I know, I said, MALIEK. Collins on you did in fifty five percent. Other people did as well, followed by Jalen Smith, which makes sense they hadn't seen him play yet, and then Lyle Collins and Bryce Butler both got ten percent. So hey, you know it was all fair back then, Rob, we

had a giant discussion about this one, y'all. On September thirteenth, we asked how many takeaways will the Cowboys defense get this season? Oh? I remember this numbery going way high. They ended the season with thirty eight total sacks takeaways, So I looked up the wrong stat here. Yeah, it's Tuesday, but it feels like, man, there you go. Okay, you're good here. Okay, So it's sacks or takeaways. Takeaways? Okay, takeaways takeaway thirty eight? Pretty good, it's thirty eight. Yeah,

it's better than sacks. Sacks was thirty eight. Sacks was thirty eight total interceptions this year ten picks. So guys, we were feeling hot about the secondary. Waited, did you listen to this one? Get ready? Was I app on this one? How many? I haven't listened to this? When we asked how many takeaways with the Cowboys defense, takeaways not just interceptions, takeaways, takeaways. Okay, so what's the total

on that? Then, Mick twenty one? Okay, so actually we're all okay, below twenty twenty through thirty thirty forty forty plus because we were just Saxonville over here. That wasn't that the Anthony Brown told us that was the goal. That was Rod marya. Forty takeaways I think was what they were looking for this year. So they ended with

twenty one. We're all right here, y'all because we all said twenty through thirty, Yeah, that got sixty three percent of the vote, fourteen percent to below twenty nineteen percent to thirty through forty. Only four percent was with Anthony Brown on that forty. Yet, I don't know how many times that's ever been done in the NFL. Where does twenty one rank? Or they take away smidpack Just keep talking, I'll tell you, yeah, okay. October ninth. This, of course,

this was after the Packers loss. Hard hard one to bear, but we said, concerned about the Cowboys playoff chances after Sunday's loss A little, a lot, not at all. When was this date? This was October ninth, after the Cowboys Packers game. So at that point they are two and three going into their body. Yeah, yeah, losing record into the bye week. I think we all did we all say a little concern. I thought we win a lot? Yeah,

a lot? Did win Brian a lot? Fifty? Yeah, a little was thirty six and not at all was fourteen percent. Because those people just want to believe in hope. I'm with those people, all right, Yeah, Mick, do you remember what you had voted on that one playoff hopes after the Packer's loss, he was still worried about the Rams game. He was so Yeah, he was mad about the Rams. And how about the We talk about what a roller coaster season, Tay. You mentioned that poll after that pole.

They win three in a row, then they lose three in a row, then they win three in a row. Whiplash, it is. I mean, that's that to me, sums up the way this whole season was Hi highs, Lulu Wicks and valleys. Man. All right, on October tenth, if you could improve one aspect of the team's performance after the bias, this was going into the bi week, it would be pass protection. Mick, looking at you guys, what happened? We just talked about it. No one talked about this going

in there. Run game, run defense, takeaways. Oh, it had to be the row on defense because they just got just destroyed by the Rams and then they got destroyed and then the Packers Eric Jones came in and had a good day. I guarantee we were run defense. It was it was we should have all voted pass protection because we didn't know it was about to go on this heavy decline, right, But yeah, pass protection only got seven percent. Run game got twelve, and takeaways got thirty

two percent. They were tied for fifteenth and takeaways with twenty one, So midpack. Who was the other team? I thought there was a bunch. Yeah, oh, okay, all right. Deepest position on the Cowboys roster on November first, we answered running back, wide receiver, tight end, defensive line. November first. Zeke had not been officially suspended yet. Oh. Everybody was loving the fact that, you know, oh, Zeke and Alfred and November first, so they were in the midst of

winning their third straight game. Yep, I'm gonna say defensive line, Okay, running back, okay, Mick, what were the other ones? It was so deepest position on the Cowboys roster is dot dot dot running back, wide receiver, tight end, defensive line. Oh, I bet we said running back. We did say running fifty nine percent, eleven percent said wide receiver, fifteen percent said tight end, fifteen percent said defensive line. And now the wide receivers ain't worth Didley whoa hot takes? We'll

have to get to that right after this. No, I mean that's what everybody's saying now. Back then, now we're saying that. So this is November first, and what was the vote on the wide receiver? It was fifteen percent? Yeah, Mickey's right, though, I mean, how many times are we gonna hear about Dez days? Yeah? All right, So let's go back back July twenty six. We were guys, we were feeling very smart obviously the fourth day campus. Yeah, probably we're doing polls back then, Yeah, we were. Rob's

been slaying the game. Yeah, I guess I didn't know. I don't care. What should these defensive ends? Do you expect to make the biggest impact this season? Oh? Got this right? David Irvinge, Taco Charlton, Charles Tapper or to Mark's Lawrence, Oh, it had to be DeMarcus Lawrence. I would say, oh, the vote had to be you know what, I bet you some people thought Tapper was going to do something. I thought David Irving, I would say, Irving it. But that's before he was everybody was thinking he was

going to be any tackle. People forgot about Lawrence. I really think why would they say? Why would they they knew that which McCall was, Irving was going to be suspended four games. That's a fair point. But yeah, I don't think as a group, I don't think we talked enough about d law and camp killing off that injury, you know, taking for granted a little bit. He still won the vote, y'all? Twenty five percent? Law Yeah, all right, followed by Charles Tapper, unfortunately was out with injury this

past season, and then Taco Charleton David Irving. Taco got seventeen, David Irving got sixteen. So we're smart guys, don't don't count yourself out. Yeah, yeah, we got one right. I got one right. And then the day after we thought would get into a little rookie talk, which rookie dB will make the biggest impact this year, And we only went between Cheeto and Jordan Lewis that's it, just two people. We just had two pins and pulls that I'm gonna

say that. I think I stop Mickey's minute after like day two, give a damn go ahead, Bryan, I went. I think I would a Woozier on that myself. You would Lewis? Did I Lewis? No? No, I was? You were mister Lewis. You were Lewis because every day we had to listen to court talk. That's right, we did you you went court? I was? I was? You were Lewis? Actually you were? You were Lewis. What date was the pull to? July twenty seventh. I would say Cheeto, because

yet at that point Lewis wasn't practice. Yeah, yeah, Why would I say Lewis did because you loved him? You did? No, I love I love Cheeto. He's the one that loved little Oh what are you talking? Were the one that said at I was trying to get I was trying to tell you what the scouts said. We need to have our own little We had our own little group. I'm gonna work with Kent and we're gonna pull together the best mixtape of twenty seventeen, and it's gonna be everything.

We said that we didn't know. Oh, there's gonna be a lot of a lot of going off the train. Well, cheeto one swept it. Seventy five percent, twenty five percent went they should have hired drafts. You vote that day? Probably not? Probably not. Yeah, all right, guys, we've been talking about this one a lot. On August eighth, we asked, well, the Cowboys finish in the top five in scoring defense two years in a row. Oh, that was a good That was a good question. Yeah, it was. It was

a good question. And I went, I went no, because of who they were playing. Okay, all the quarterback, all the court. Yeah, I went no, I went no. I have no idea what I said. We'll find out. That's easily the case anybody else because they don't listen. I'm gonna say. The fans said yes. Yeah, fans said yes, But it was a close one, rob Fifty two percent said yes and forty eight percent said no. Where did they finish and the scoring defense, scoring defense, scoring defense? Oh,

thank you for having all the papers there. It memorized. Not yet, not yet, but he will, but he will see what I have to say to all of this. And we have to get this maybe for a drop Kent. If you guys saw the Georgia linebacker last night yelling humble yourself to Baker Mayfield, and it's quite epic and I think we need to get well deserved. By the way, all right, mister Missouri, why is he why is he telling?

Why is he telling the sideline reporter? Or they better get with it or whatever he said that she reported at the middle of the second quarter. You didn't like the pretender sign that he carried to No, I don't like the fact that he said that something about this is for real. They better get going. Like when they were up by two, two or three touchdowns, it was like doing a poll and then seeing the results. Will

I win this game? Not to gate Ball, No, so Ken, we gotta get that humble yourself because he did it in the locker room too, which was awesome. And he's like, oh't no, I just said humble yourself. Like and he's like, I'm flashy too, but humble yourself. Tied for thirteen points. It's not bad, was the average? Uh? This is just it's the rankings. Okay, Well, they had some bad days. It's not hard to figure out. But they again, how many pick sixes. Did you give up six five returns

for touchdown? Yeah, that's that's fair too. That's thirty points right there the total. Yeah, okay, yikes, Well guys, oh I just did it. They ended up averaging like twenty some twenty points something points per game. Oh, twenty point something, twenty point six or something like that. I don't know. We're gonna end this on a positive note because August ninth, all of us were very twenty point one points a game. They gave up perfect, so not that bad bad considering

they gave up the thirty fives. Yeah, right, and when it came the yards it was three eighteen and considering it gave up five twelve. So San Diego, let me tell you this. The last last two weeks defense been on point Seattle and you know the Eagles or teen points to the Seahawk. By the way, is any real quick before we get out to break or whatever you're gonna do, which is gonna get to our last pole question? Oh? Okay, go ahead, and we just have one more. And we're

all very smart because we all voted this. I listened to the show. Besides Dak the most Indispensable Cowboys offensive player is Jason Witten, Zeke Elliott, Tyron Smith, does Bryant, we all said Zeke, Yeah, I bet you, we did. I bet we said Tyron Smith. We did say Tyron Smith. Really yeah, because we're geniuses and the fans are geniuses too. They voted forty eight percent, Tyren Smith close a, ze Gill at thirty nine, Jason Witten six percent, seven percent

does okay? I think we felt like they could run enough, right, not great, but voted with depth though. Yeah, thank you, Rob, thank you. I have another pot coming up in the third segment, we ask you this, where's your point? You guys saw that Nick Fole live? Feeling good about that one? Can I take that? Feel good about him? Yeah? You guys saw him live? You feel good about that? When I start sudfil, I went on, I went on my

rant last week about him. Can I take back my coffin? Yeah? Oh, let's all remember what we said about him, Brian, this was your ideal press box on the food is excellent. There. I know that the pretzels are excellent. Let's not getting the people cheering in there. Where they're cheering people, well, they're loud about their thoughts. Yeah, they just yelled. Oh they're yelling like you do, like now something happens. They just I mean, it was a nothing game. The fans

weren't even excited till the end. Well, and then I think they were standing up and cheering just to stay warm. The reporters or whoever was in the press box on Sunday was very excited about Nate sudfil I called him Nate stud film. God, they were down in your end. I didn't know, oh, down in the Plebeian, the little peasants. Let me say this real quick. Oh speaking to fans real quick. I know you're gonna go to breaktail. Say

it real quick. Did you see here here? We're like ten thousand Nebraska fans showed up at that Chick fil A game yesterday just to watch their to watch the new coach. Watch the new coach. Hey, by the way, undefeated, Susan. What a good dude that guy is. I mean to take his dream job. He wins over Todd Graham the judo fired and then still had to coach the Arizona Well that's fair, that's fair, But I mean he didn't. Just Graham got twelve millions. Hold on his heart string.

Scott Frost go back to his place where he won a national championship. I think in Nebraska work for Tom Osborne, but he felt like he owed it to those guys at UCFT. Like you said, undefeated seas back he coaches. How many coaches do that nowadays? They don't they leave? They certainly not the one well they ask you to leave, they say get out of here. Certainly not the offensive coordinator in Missouri that left and Scott Frost was still

gonna be there coaching the game. Yeah, and left them being coordinated by a tight end, which on the quarterback. I wish O O would have left it yesterday? How about that? The MISSOI yout game? No, not sad get mark my words on that Philadelphia bunch bye bye. Well they're gonna whoever is going to play in the NFC has to go through Minnesota, which I'm glad we don't

because it's cold there. No, it's in philadelph Philadelphia. What I'm saying, No, what I'm saying is if you're saying that Philly's gonna lose whoever plays now, oh, well that's that indoor. Yeah, that's that place is hard to play, it is. I saw were the quarterbacks. Bradford's back practicing today. Everyone get excited, y'all. They're not gonna make that switch. Come on, Mickey hodd hand theory. Let's do it, Mickey,

you can't gonna do it. Yeah, do it. And I hope everybody that was for the Super Bowl going to Minneapolis, they better hope that there's a significant Arctic warning here warming in the next month. Chill gonna be over there and it's gonna be minus twenty side. It's one of the best thing. Yeah, but you gotta walk outside to get inside. Hey, mister sunshine, we got more talking, No sunshine, it's cold. We got sunshine because we at a third segment coming up right after this break. Join us. Then.

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the man with the most well worn stetson. That's the one most cut out to be a cowboy. Stetson hats are handmade right here in Texas and have been on Cowboys heads for over one hundred and fifty years. The rest of you can visit stetson dot com slash cowboy to find a retailer nearest you. What does it mean to be a Dallas Cowboys fan? It means you've got the passion and the heart to do your part supporting

the Boys no matter what. That's why when the game's on the line, you're on your feet, whether you're at home or in the stands. Actually, you're more than a fan. You are a member of Cowboys Nation, and so is AT and T doing their part to keep you connected to America's team all season. Law AT and T is a proud member of cowboy Boys Nation. This is talking Cowboys. No. Why Papa John's pizza tastes so great Philadelphia Nick Foles not playing quarterback where you can still buy one and

get one free. That's always great, and that means you get double the ingredients. That means more veggies that are delivered fresh, hoole and never frozen. Add more pork and beef pepperoni. So buy one, get one free, Papa John. Have we fact checked? Is Mickey given away pizzas and they're really not we Is this really true? It is on the on the on the their spot. Yes, are you updating the games, dating on all the legal east and everything? Okay, I'm just making sure marketing folks. Have

you been contacted about being the next CEO? No, but they're gonna be I'm gonna be their next pitch man. Oh that's what's as good? What's that. I'm the guy that's gonna pitch Papa John's do the spots the spot Papa, He's gonna be there with the equipment and from the Houston Texans, some grounds crew guy from the Browns. And it's not Deshaun Watson though, it's Tom Savage. You do, big guy. You're not giving away pizzas, right, don't you

guys watch TV? Yeah? But I mean where do you get up and go to the bathroom during the commercial? I just kind of move around a lot. Okay, I'm just busy. I'm busy. Yeah. Well, Rob, we just stole all your poles from the entire season. But let's get to the one today because I think it's it's a hot, juicy topic. Yeah, we can put this one in the time capsule and dig it up on January second, twenty nineteen, and see if we're right or if the fans are right,

the Cowboys will be a playoff team next season. Hmmm, yes, no, or I left Mickey and out ask me after free agency slash draft. That's a good one. Oh, go ahead, vote for it. It's it's you got there for me. It's the cop out answer for But it's fair because we don't know exactly what this football team will look like until spring. Can I go first? Yeah? Yes, they will. They will make the playoffs next year. Why I feel like that the things that we've talked about, I think

they will. To me, this is a this is a very important year for this coaching staff now after some of the turmoil things that have happened. Turmoil maybe the bad wrong word, but they're going to have some turnover here. They're not gonna have a turnover. I don't think the head coach or the coordinators, but I think the assistance. I think the coordinators are back to Jason. Yeah, I do.

And I think that maybe you can have some different ideas, maybe some different things, Maybe some different points of view will come in and say, hey, well this place, we did it this way. We did it this way, and I think that's when you hire assistance. I think that's what you try and look for. You look for guys that can give you some different ideas. I think they'll get things fixed offensively. I think you will have better consistency with the offensive line. Hopefully the health. I don't

know about the health. But I think Dak Prescott year three will be better. I do, I do, And again, it all will have to do with the guys around him. But I'm interested to see the coaching changes within the staff because that always makes me, you know, I'm like, Okay, better idea. I like that, Like that guy he coached these guys. I like that. You know. So they're gonna lose some guys, but I I do they play the AFC South and then the NFC South if I'm right

about that, which is not good. Well, three of the four are going to the playoffs. Yeah, but we all know it's but it's gonna be. It's gonna be. There's gonna be. We thought Tampa Bay would be a team. There's always some type of regression there. How many new playoff teams do we have this year? For five out of six in the NFC. It's Bills are back in the playoffs. The nine and seven seven, nine and seven got in in the in the AFC. Huh did two nine and seven teams get in? Yeah, the Titans, Titans

and the Bills. Yeah, it must be nice. And the Times tried to lose every game down the stretch. They taught, they tried, they really didn't. And you know, and by the way, can I use something real quick too for a New year New Year's resolution. I apologize to you, Marvin Lewis and the Cincinnati Bengals. I said you quit. You obviously didn't. Well, yeah, no, now you're right about that. I don't think I did either. Yeah, they cost two

teams playoffs. That's I'm saying. They did not quit. And I in football, big ball football guy here said that they quit, and they didn't quit. And so congratulations to the Bengals. You know, whether Marvin Lewis leaves or not, Hey, I don't care, but you did play hard. And I was wrong about my New Year's resolution for the NFL is try to prevent injuries to your biggest star players, because yeah, we saw way too many guys and you can't prevent injuries that it's just the nature of this game.

But we saw too many big stars just go down and storylines that were cut short. What happened to the poll? Am I? Am I in the play? Am I the Yeah, we're just getting ahead of ourselves. Yeah? What were the answers so that Mickey can move on? Yeah? Do you guys have a feeling? I jumped out yes, Yeah, I jumped out Yes, why Mick because they were awfully close with all the stuff they went through this year. And I don't need to see free agency because ain't gonna

do anything in free agency sign their own. If they signed their own, that'll be great. That'll be a successful free agency period. The fans agree. Fifty nine percent say yes, the Cowboys will be a playoff team in twenty eighteen. Thirty percent say ask me after offseason moves, eleven percent say no. I'm gonna say yes because of what a lot of you guys said. I just think if you count on sixteen games from Zeke next year, you'll be a more consistent offensive team. And whether or not Tiring,

you hope Tiring can stay healthy. But I think they are going to address their backup situation at left tackle and hopefully they're better equipped in case something does happen to him. You want to go, I just hope we can win a game. You want to just go with the even year theory. Every even year and the other year eighteen, sixteen and eighteen. Yeah, and it's also where this league goes. Man, you have success one year, you're probably not gonna have the next year unless you're the Pats.

And thank god they have the second place schedule. Thank god, here we go with that again. Who do we pick up the Packers? We could probably there's Packers again? Rights the Lions, the Packers. Packers get the Lions because the Packers finished third and nine. The Lions were ninety seven, okay? And then Seattle again, yeah, Seattle on the road. Yeah, there you go. But who knows what that team's gonna look like, by the way, I mean, the first time

they've missed the playoffs in a while. Yeah, and they're talking about major potential turn over there with their roster. Who knows, You don't know. Earl Thomas will be here so he'll know all everything. I'm kidding. I don't like, do you think the Cowboys have to make the plaoffs? Win the division? That's the other thing. Or the Giant's gonna come back stronger than ever, or you get Carson Wentz back. I mean, is this Philli's division to lose again?

Oh they did it a while back for with Don McNabb there, Or are they going to turn around and somebody on their teams get suspended for six games and they're fighting to stay in the wild card race and the Cowboys rise up and went thirteen games again? They got they got Mickey's first play schedule to worry about. That's right, I got a play Minnesota Rams. Minnesota the Rams? Yeah, yeah, why not? So that why that'll knock them back down to eleven wins. We should have done the Rams be

bad again? Yeah, we should have done a poll and said, what if I told you the Rams, the Titans, the Jags, the Bills, Yeah, would all be in the playoffs this year? Would you have believed me? Yes? Or though no? For next week? Not insane? Not the Bills. I guarantee you that. I don't know the Bills were hot at the start of the year. I wouldn't have said it before the start of the year. It's like, who's playing quarterback for him?

You see what Doug Peterson just came out about that quote Foles quote, Foles will start, but Nate Sudfields should stay warm. Fire that did we not call it Studfeld? Is what they were. They were laughing too hard. So I don't know if you guys saw this on the TV, but they run into the second half. Of course it's scoreless. Oh no, no, cowboys are going to get the ball back and started the second half. Who would have thunked that? And and that really helped, That really did help. It

got him off to the fiery start. And then and then one guy who was in front of me, he's obviously a Philly reporter, he goes, look at look at Studfeld. He's even fast running into the locker room and he was like dead spurning. It was hilarious. He's cold. And then but the winner of the day, Donnie Jones, you stole my heart wearing your sweatpants onto the field, taking them off right before your punt and then not even

moving them off the field. It was epic. Yeah, he just was, you guy, he was he was hoping that was another tackler somebody could have tripped over. They tripped over. Yeah, yeah, that's unfair. That's well, that's not as bad as running out there without your helmet. Yeah, I'd say it was it. I mean just asking the conditions again. We washed it here really warm, really warm. It's fantastic, I mean fantastic, like Jason Garrett boys, fantastic, wonderful. Is it hard throwing

the ball? Yes? I picked up one of those balls on Oh you're slinging around free game picture of it. It was as hard as a football. What did I tell you he did need to deflate this football? Yeah? It was, I mean solid. I said, I hope I wouldn't kick it. Did you test your distance? It would would hurt yards, it would hurt my foot. I have a picture, y'all. Yeah, and he posed for me. It's not anything he hasn't seen. It's pretty epic. I'll tweet

it from the talking count and tight right. Yeah. Actually he was holding it and then Turner was. Turner had to give me a couple of pointers there. Yeah. Yeah. The coaches had to tell you not to get knocked out of your hands. Yeah, I'm telling you. It was cold wind and the wind was in your face when you were colder than the Giant's game that you like to talk about everybody fell apart in last year. It was the Ice Bowl last December at the medal, it was it was Chicago cold. It was Chicago cold. It

was cold. That's the coldest I've ever been in an NFL game. It wasn't great, Bay for five wasn't as cold, but it was that cold, asked Nick. When we got done with pregame and trying to regain feeling in our face. You know, yeah, you guys the heck of a job. By the way, on that well, thanks, you guys always did as well in studio. Um, yeah, that warm and seven. They were outside a lot of weeks in the heat.

Lindsay's expecting a child. What would you rather? What would you rather being out in the heat or being out when the wind chill is hovering over zero heat? Hispanic radio did the broadcast outside? Yeah there? Yeah? Did they? Yes? They did? Yeah, outside in one of the plausas, like one level below the press. But no wonder Victor looked like. Victor didn't say a word the whole I think he was frozen on the whole ride home. He didn't move. Oh, Brian,

you get this, get this Okay. So we're sitting on the plane. Everyone's dying to get back. This is just a tigging Cowboys exclusive for you guys, exclusive exclusive. Now we're dying to get back, right, Mickey's just got parties lined up ready to go. These guys texts on right roll he changed in the bathom. Okay, So we're sitting there and I'm like, man, it's been a hot minute

since we've been sitting here. I thought we were going to take off early because right the game was so fast that getting that dominant win we did, and we're sitting there. PA announcer your worst nightmare comes on the PA and he says, I think that would have been the pilot, not the PA announcer. I call a PA

announcer co pilot too. A few little known facts. That's six five from Georgetown comes over and he says, hey, everybody know, we're about to take off, but the backstairs of the plane are frozen to the plane because the weather was not letting them cooperate. I don't know, the buttons weren't working. So they were either going to like figure it out, get some people come, or we were gonna fly dangle and they were gonna just be left behind.

But it was so funny thinking about like, what if we just get up in the air the stairs are just dangling. In Nascar, that's a penalty, it's you have to come back. It's carrying penalty, it's carrying equipment out of the box. But yeah, so the stairs were frozen to the thing malfunctioning and went and back off by itself, the little latches. It was you came in with hot water, with hot water, went back, theremered it off, fig he's got that fix. It was. It was, we've got the

mechanics coming. We're trying to fix this. A bunch of guys standing around making one hundred dollars an hour. Just pull water on. Then he said, and if that doesn't work, we'll try to gradually pull away without injuring the plane. And I'm going, oh, that's a good idea. Let's not no, I think that was gonna pull off and it would just kind of you know. And I thought the way we took, the way we finally lef it was, I felt like it was so slow. Yeah, that that's what

they were doing. I'm going to hope he's not ruting the plane. But they ended up we got home. Sack said, sending out the offensive line, telling the pull that thing away. Yeah, they're strong. I'm not. I'm not calling out there. I'm gonna get somebody who's like, you want to see strong those guys bench five fifty. All I could think of was coming back from Buffalo. That's the last trip I went on with you guys. Yeah, it's the last TI.

That's it. I'm done. Why just because I kept pointing out to me there's the moon again, there's the moon running out of fuel. Yeah, we're going down. Yeah, Mickey, Oh, Mick, he's the worst travel partner there is. Oh, I'm great. No, you're She moved to sit next to me. I did plot twist, y'all. Why would you? It was great? Was it? Yeah? I just sat there. I think I watched a little bit of a movie. I read books. She slept for two hours. Did I sleep? Yes? Oh, I can't reader

what I said in July. But you still can't remember you slept or not? It was It was a blur week and but here we are, start of the offseason. Yeah, packed up the lockers. I think Bryce Butler figures the writings on the wall for him sent out a very interesting tweet that just basically said thanks y'all. Yeah, center piece pick on our website with a big giant cardboard box. A lot of guys did that. He cleaned it out.

So he played well. I mean, if you look at the two plays he made in the game, they were huge plays. I mean that that past play down the field was great, body control, balance when up and got the football, and you know, I mean they needed it and they were they were bad. That was a That was a second to twenty three throw that he made. Surprised he didn't get as many snaps as he did down the stretch. He was hurt. He was hurt that planter fash yet. I mean, think about it. But it's

so funny. He was staring at Garrett after he made the catch, like everybody on the sidelines was kind of like, way to go hitting him, And he was looking dead at Garrett the whole time, like you're not gonna play me now. You know you're playing me now? Kind of a bit and okay, I get it. Just get back in the huddle. When he came, you know, he had fifteen catches for three hundred and seventeen yards. Yeah, somebody will sign him, oh yeah, yeah. But not as a

first or a second. No, but somebody will sign him. Somebody will bring him to camp and bring him in his depth and probably playing against he had Tennessee or uh. He bet on himself last year said I'll take a one year deal before Terrence resigned, and I bet I haven't asked him this, but I wondered if he thought, Okay, Terence is gonna get a lot of money somewhere else, and he's gonna have a lot. I think we all thought that Bryce would have a legit shot to start here,

and it did not out that way. You did not think he was gonna get money, Terrence really mean to go back and listen to those shows, No, go ahead, you anchored those shows? Right? Oh? No? I think we all were resigned to that fact that he probably was going to get a pretty good offer somewhere. Terrence Williams. Yes, I kept saying why he had a better season than Trill prior because they were coming off a thirteen win season, and hey, there are a lot of bad teams out there.

Maybe this guy could start for me. He's a number two here, maybe he could be our lead guy somewhere else. You really, you really thought he could be the number one. How much money did Laron Robinson get? And I'm just saying teams need players. You know, this is a team that went to the playoffs last year. The market wasn't what we thought it would be. I raised in my hand as a guy that thought that he was going to get paid better than he did. Wide receivers got paid.

He didn't know a lot of guys got one year deals. Now the guy, the guy that just got paid is the guy in Philadelphia, right that did shown. Yeah, Jeffrey just got paid, but he had to he had to go on a one year deal. A lot of them did. Yeah, that's what I'm saying that that's they kind of made a decision. I think the NFL general that and maybe maybe Anthony Hitchins might be the same way. Maybe that if your Cowboy fan, that's your hope. Well, last Terrence

Williams did the smart thing. They signed the deal as soon as he got it. Yeah it was money here, Yeah anna signing bonus and he didn't have to move and he's still home. But it was the end of the first week of free agency and the offers weren't there. That that wide receiver market was pretty shallow. It turned out they just that position didn't get a lot of money. Well, which one? Which one would you have gone out and paid? You're gonna have to hold on that. There we go.

What a cliffhanger we just left. Don't we have another half hour? Don't we always finish at twelve? Thirty year year hungover from twenty seventeen at two thousand? Yeah, college players, I got you to watch twelve. Nick y'all join us next Tuesday eleven am. Thank you so much for everything you do and Draft show this week, Brian, Yes, Thursday, eleven am, Draft Show. Thanks day for Draft Show. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.