Talkin' Cowboys: What Would You Fix?

Week five, Episode two. As we start looking ahead to the New York Giants, the first Divisional opponent of the twenty twenty season, and we still well, we have to we gotta look back a little bit to the Cleveland Browns in a forty nine thirty eight loss, the final score of this past Sunday, and the Cowboys coming in at one in three. Glads, you're with us on Talking Cowboys on the very streaming platforms or live right now on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. I'm Kyle Yeoman's in studio

with Isaiah stand Back. We've got heck My Harrison and Rob Phillips as always, and guys, it's uh, you still have that disappointment there. It still looms, It's still got the bubble guts, as heck My likes to say, whenever it comes to the losses past Sunday, you still have that little itch that you need to scratch whenever it comes to the Cowboys getting a win. But don't you feel just a little bit better on Tuesday now that it's kind of moved along a little bit here? Rob, Yeah,

I mean Isaiah can can speak to this. So there's a what is it a ten minute cooling down period after games where media is not allowed in the in the locker room and nobody's allowed in the locker room right now, but it's it's a situation where you, you know, you just kind of calmed down a little bit, and I think we all probably had a chance to go

back watch the tape. Not pretty as as Heckma suggested a minute to go, but but you see, you get a better You kind of put the motions aside, and you look at the things that maybe did go well that you can build off of, and you get a clearer picture of what didn't go well, and a lot didn't go well. But but I think you know, usually by Tuesday you kind of take a big picture view of it and say, look, it's four games in the season. You're a half game out. Of first place, but you

got a lot to clean up. Rob, I'm gonna disagree with both of y'all. Right now. Now I'm gonna say, you know, I've had a lot of surgeries in my life, unfortunately in so when you get out of surgery, you know, because of the medicine they give you a lot of times, you get a little constipated, you know, get a little constipated. Yeah, so when you get a little backed up, right, So, right right now, the cowboys got a little bubble bubble guts. You got the bubble guts, you know what I'm saying,

So that they're a little backed up right now. You don't get relief from being backed up until you go out there. You let it go, right, So we gotta go out there this week and let it go all right, So right now I'm not feeling any better. It's still the same until we go out there. Embussies, giants in the mouth. We need to get Isaiah some tums. Heck, you know what a segue? I love it. And there's no better way to come into a show talking about

bubble guts and complication. Yeah, so you know, obviously obviously I'm smiling, but I'm crying inside. You know, I've watched this tape for the umpteenth time and it's it's it's there, and so I'm look, we're gonna what we're gonna do is find the silver lining today and we're gonna make your right right because, as the Great Nate Newton said, we have Giants RX coming this this Sunday. I know the title, the title today's show should be bubble Guts yea or let it Go? Yeah, let it Go might

be the better one. I like that. And what Heck was referring to in terms of what Isaiah or excuse me, what Nate Newton said. He said it on the postgame show on Sunday and said, uh that hey, good thing that the RX drug stores coming in, the pharmacy's coming in,

and that's the New York Giants. And the fact that all of their weaknesses or your strengths and the vice versa, really and the fact that this could fix a lot of things for the Cowboys and Ezekiel Elliott even said in his postgame press conference that they need to find a little bit of confidence early and I think this is maybe that week to do so where you finally get a little bit of confidence and you're able to roll with it a little bit earlier than what they

have done in the first four weeks of the season. But guys, I gave you a homework assignment last night, and I tease this at the end of the show yesterday. Of course, where the Cowboys are at this very moment, it comes to, really, where do you point the finger? Where do you point it at the coaching staff or at the players? And I think yesterday we kind of came to an agreement that it was really at the moment, it was to point the fingers at the players. You

gotta step up. You gotta do your job. Cleveland did their job on Sundays. You did not. You did not play complimentary football. So I gave you, guys the role of playing general manager. Was like, oh, let it be a GM. So I know you would. I think you'd be pretty good at it too, and I know Rob would be very good at it as well. But here's the thing with playing GM. I'm giving you two acquisitions that you have to make. One is a free agency pickup,

and it can't be the same as the other three analysts. Also, what would you be willing to trade We can't talk about other players specifically on other teams for various reasons, but we can talk about what we'd be willing to trade and for what position. So Isaiah Scher in studio, we're gonna start with you first. We're gonna give you the acquisition first. Then we're gonna go to heck Butt, and then Rob will back things up on the on the third side. Is this really a question? Okay, you

know you know exactly where I'm going with this. There's a gentleman by the name of Earlist Thomas. Okay, he's out there. He's a Hall of Fame caliber player. He's gonna be in a Hall of fame. He's all pro, he's an absolute comp editor. And you're hearing a lot of stirs and in terms of why people don't want him on his team, Listen up, y'all, these are grown men. He's not going to influence grown man if he is this bad guy all of a sudden, go out there

and shure up your secondary in a safety position. Because we've had a lot of blown plays back there, whether it's miscommunication, whether it's whether it's a you know, assignment errors, and I think you really handle those issues by going and picking up this free agent back there, somebody who's probably even more the way I know Earl, he's really

angry right now. He can't wait to hit the fielder and just go show everybody wrong, okay, And then whenever it comes to a trade here also, by the way, the fans come in and send us your send us your picks and your trade willingness as well. But what position would you want to trade for and what would

be you would be willing to give up. I would want to trade for an interior defensive alignment I would want to give I would want to get an absolute dog run stopper at the defensive interior D line position.

And I would be willing to give up two to three players that we have at the in the secondary position because we have an assortment of guys back there right um, and none of them are necessarily you know, um, you know, uh, what's the best way of saying this, rob None of them, I would say, none of them are necessarily dogs right now. I think the guys are going to get better, but I think there's two or three guys that you could probably trade away to add

some depth to some other teams competitively. To go out there and get one absolute dog on a D line. So no draft picks there, Rob, Do you agree in the standpoint that maybe even another team would be willing to trade for our secondary players because I don't know if that's something that other teams might be necessarily interested in. Well, just it would just depend on, you know, what the

needs are for other teams. I mean, I think usually usually in the NFL it's involving draft picks, and um, you know, I think they got That's what they've done the last few years. I think Michael Bennett was a conditional seventh round pick that they brought him in from New England obviously the Amari trade. So you know, I'm I'm probably giving away my answer here, but I'm a little hesitant to do that right now. Yea, with my draft picks, I like it. I like it all right, Hackma,

you're up, man. Let's get the free agents in the mix here. Now, you know, yesterday when you gave us the homework a signment, I had to give you a call to ask you, what are you trying to do here? Are you trying to trick us out our spot by asking us to play a general manager and have all kind of heat on our head, and we know you

like being in the principal's office, but we don't. So I thought about this long and hard, and my answer is this, man, I feel as though you know, we praised Will McClay and what he does in the off season and do the draft and putting this team together, we ignore the signs of the pandemic. And I understand. Look, I'm not avoiding the question. I'm just saying that when you look at the interviews and you see everything that we're saying from a front office and organizational standpoint, they

believe in the guys that they have. Obviously, you want to get other like start to having auditions for guys that are out there on the streets and you know that a Snax Harrison is out there. I think that's the way to go to start seeing who's there that may be able to help you with some of your interior line problems. But it's still gonna be what Isaiah said, It's gonna be having to look at the back half of our defense and fix a lot of the problems

that we have. And guys, I want to ask you all question, do you know a gentleman by the name of t J. Karrie. I do have you? You do all right? Do you know Julian Blackman? Yes, you know, all right? So he played no. So these are guys that are safeties that are on the Indianapolis coach which is the number one number tied with the Steelers right now.

But these are guys that are seventh and third round picks that nobody was raving about them or saying their name right, But it's because of the way that their defense plays, the takeaways and the turnover differential. We're right now, the Cowboys are last in the league. Rob We've been talking about this a lot, the Cowboys not being able to get turnovers. We saw last night Monday night, the easy turnovers that gods were getting a pick six. When was the last time the Cowboys had an easy pick six?

I'll wait twenty and seventeen, Okay, this was a Yeah, it's been a it's been a minute. It's been a minute. And so that just that just speaks to some of the woes and problems that you've had defensively. Look Earl Thomas Edwin Matten. If you had Earl Thomas Charles Haley, uh pick a defensive lineman from a great era. If you give up three hundred and seven yards running, you're gonna get beat. Period. So there's the long answer. So so you said, Earl Thomas, that's what you get. Oh gosh, okay,

I didn't hear that at all. It was it was it was a little piece of it was a little piece in there in Isaiah. I've gone to the school of Isaiah's. I've gone to the school of Isaiah standback. So what I do is I present present the analysis right first, and then I present my argument, and then I cut you off at whatever else you We're going

to come back try tout Oh that's awesome. Yeah, And really I'm glad you brought up brought that up in the way that you did, because one of the reasons we're having this conversation and playing GM is because of the reluctancy of the front office at least to look outside. Then even Stephen Jones said yesterday on the flagship Station one on five point three the fan that this is a team that you need to look inward on. You you built this team in the offseason. You have faith

in the guys that you have. You have to look inward. Sure, that's the whole point of having a coaching staff. If not, it would just be daily fantasy playing football out there, and you would just have these these acquisitions here and there. However, there are some opportunities to go out and make improvements. And I think that's where the conversation and maybe even some of the frustration is for Cowboys fans is the fact that there are players available that could help you immediately.

And I think that's something that at least that's one of the big reasons why we're having this conversation because the front office is staying put, at least publicly they're staying put. They may be making those persons, they may be having those phone calls. However, whenever you turn things around, there's an opportunity to get better. All right, Rob, who you got as an acquisition? Can I can I just real quick? Can I just rebuttal that or play Deuvil's advocate? Yeah?

The point you just made, well because because Jerry was asked about that exact question just now on the fan and he basically said, if you look at our roster currently constructed, we have gone out and found veterans to try to help the team. Now, this was off season, of course, and I know you guys are talking in season, but Aldin Smith is here, don Terry Poe is here, haha. Clinton Dix was here, Gerald McCoy was here. They they

have gone the veteran route. Now they're not doing it right now, and there could be different reasons for that. You know, money is always involved in bringing in veteran guys. How much guaranteed money do they want. I'm just speaking in generalities here, but Jerry kind of spoke to that. Because of what their cap situation is going to be going forward, they've got to be careful with the money that they commit, and so maybe that has something to do with it. You know, we've talked about old Thomas

for everybody has for a long time here. I don't know how much off the field is involved there. It's it's just it's really interesting to me he's still not found a new team because you know, I'll kind of seg into segue into your question. I mean, to Isaiah's point, I mean, he's the best free agent out there in terms of accomplishments and probably what he could bring it to a team immediately. When I look when I watched the game back yesterday. The thing that jumped out to

me the most is that front four. You know, I know Jalen Smith is getting crushed right now publicly for the game he played, But the game, the more I watched, it reminded me so much of that twenty eighteen game against Indianapolis, Like the first time we kind of saw cracks in the run defense with this kind of Cowboys era team, And it was like Isaiah said, you know, they just kind of you drawed up on a chalkboard, you block here, seal here, and that's what they did.

And they were on the front flour so quickly and on Jalen Smith so quickly at times that I think that that really stood out to me. But there's you can point to. There's been something wrong in different spots every game the defense has had trouble with. So I wouldn't say one thing, but I would say interior rusher, I don't know what snacks Harrison where he is in his career, and I think, you know, I think the reports are he's visiting Seattle this week and obviously the

Cowboys haven't gone in that direction. Jerry has been asked about him specifically and said they liked the guys upfront that they have, But I do think maybe finding somebody to help, or at least maybe bringing up Neville Gallimore and giving him a shot to try to seal things up in that front. Four I think is really important right now because I think that that was a big

issue in the run defense yesterday at least or Sunday. Hey, Rob, when you got an up unity to watch the tape and you saw, like you talked about this, Jaylen Smith is taking a beating in the media and everyone is down on him, talking about getting rid of all kinds of thing. He doesn't deserve the money. But then you see him trying to pursue the ball and he has done terry post sitting in his lap. That's not a good image there. But this what's happening. He doesn't he's

not able to get in those lays. He's not able to pursue the ball because he's fighting off his own guys. And it wouldn't matter. It really doesn't matter from a linebacker's standpoint if you have LV or whomever you have, But you have your linebackers taking on lineman and that's going to shorten their careers or at least get them hurt. And I'm knocking on Wood because I don't want that because we don't have anything behind him that's better than him.

So we have to consider that when we start passing that criticism for Jaylen Smith, not saying that he hasn't had busted coverage and you can't circle other things where he has definitely missed a tackle. But guys, you have to when you turn on the Cleveland uh take, it's just evident that there's nothing that he can do with guys in his own guys in his face. Now that's not to say there weren't mistakes on his part. I mean, I think it goes all around. Obviously, the penalty, the

face face mass penalty. I think that that was a huge play in the game, changed the momentum around. There's obviously different angles you can take to try to make those plays and and and you know, Jerry talked about you gotta trust the scheme, and we talked about that yesterday. You can't overrun plays, you can't get outside of your job.

And so that that just kind of goes all around with the whole defense right now, and that that's that's more, that's not talent, that's just making simple plays and and trusting your assignment. Yeah. Well, and even with Jalen Smith, none of us here are saying that Jalen Smith's playing well. He's had his mistakes, like Rob just said. But whenever we were going into this season, we said, the additions to the defensive line, we're gonna take pressure off of

Jalen Smith. It was gonna be an uphill back. It's going to be a tall mountain to climb without Layton vander esh next to them. But whenever you have an avalanche, it's easy to look lost. Whenever you're trying to climb a mountain with an avalanche coming at you, talking about those defensive linemen being pushed back, you have to dodge a couple of rocks and boulders back and forth. So overall, yes,

the defense has issues. We're going to fix some of those issues with your fan questions coming up on the other side of the break, Fans on the fifty, they are fire questions today, and when we come back, you're on talking cowboys. Since eighteen sixty five, Stetson hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and team pride too, you

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Doctor pea cream Soda. Is he a new Combonut's music to my ears? Okay, doctor music to my ears and mouth new Doctor pepper and Cream Soda. Delis just do back to Talking Cowboys. Back here on Talking Cowboys. Second segment, Week five, Episode two. If you're looking for something to change up your dinner routine, helps support local Frisco businesses by choosing one of the Star District restaurants. For more information on delivery, tank count, curbside pick up, and dine

in availability, visit the Star District dot com. Heck Man, I went and got some sushi Marnqui the other day after our high school game. We called oh Man, mister Miyagi, Chuck Norris, Oh man, it was fantastic. Across the street. We invited Isaiah said no, he couldn't come, so but that was okay. We had a we had a nice little broad date over at Sushi. Markie, glad you're with us here on Talking Cowboys, Isaiah, stand back, Rob Phillips, heck Ma Harrison. I'm Kyle Yeoman's time now for some

fans on the fifty. Fans on the fifty got our great sounder again from Chris Beam as always, and we've got some fantastic questions already coming in throughout the last couple of hours. I tweeted it out this morning. Continue sending them in though on the periscope stream. I'll definitely I'll read them off of there as well. But let's

go ahead and talk about this. And we're gonna ask this specifically to Isaiah, and this is from our boy Gee, he says, please ask Isaiah, Woods, Cheeto, Brown, Lewis all had good rookie seasons. Do they Do you think that they've progressed as play over the last couple of weeks, and what are the reasons if they haven't, And what's the cutoff to move on if they haven't Woods, Cheeto, Brown and Lewis, so all of your secondary players ultimately, yeah,

they definitely haven't improved. Um, you don't think Antoine or excuse me, you don't think Xavier Woods is improved? No? Wow, No, No. Only only person I say that has improved has been Digs. And that's because he's he's seeing things that he's never seen before. Right, So he's becoming more patient, he's gaining that experience. Now he's still getting torched sometimes, right, But you expected Ricky too, especially with some of the schemes

that we're playing. But no, they answered the question directly. No, they haven't. Even they have not improved, not visibly at least, you know, not not something that it hasn't shown up on film. And when do you move on? You have nobody to move on to. So true, Um, if there was somebody to move on to, you know, we obviously would. Um. You know, we saw, we saw Thompson get pulled you know, for Wilson. Um, But you know, I don't I don't see. I don't see Xavier was getting getting pulled out the game.

But you have if there were other guys to put in there, I think they would have been placed in there already. Rob, same question here whenever it comes to the secondary. Do you think you've seen an improvement from some of those guys after they kind of came out hot, even as late round pick. Yeah, that's a tough one to answer because I was looking forward to seeing and

we'll still see it at some point. Cheeto with with you know, a new scheme, new secondary coach, how he could progress and you know, Jordan Lewis can make plays for you, uh in small packages, in short amount of plays like our snaps that he gets, But how does he do with the larger volume of plays that That's that's still got to be answered. Um. I thought Anthony Brown did a better job, like after his first or

second year the penalties were too high. I think he was one of the top in the league, and penalties can cut that down. Um. You know, and Xander is a guy they really count on back there. But obviously there, you know, the big plays back there are contributed in parts to the safety. I can't you can't say that any parts has been productive so far. It's interesting because three of the four guys you mentioned there are going

to be free agents next year. So you know, this could be a completely different looking secondary next year, depending on what where they go. I think only only Anthony Brown's got a three year deal, and that was signed over there, looking at looking at oh, go for it, go for it had Man. Yeah, basically, those those the four guys that you were speaking of. I thought Anthony Brown had a really good rookie season, as the question said,

but you know, kind of regressed last year. I felt like he was playing a lot better before he was injured for Lewis Man. I just feel as though his skill set calls for him to be a slot corner and he's a liability when you try to play him on the outside. So I think those are the differences between him. I think he's just playing out of position. As far as Woods, I haven't I haven't seen him take the next step. I know that he's a locker

room guy. Everybody one says great things about him, but it doesn't translate a lot of times to the field. And so especially with this first quarter of the season and our secondary giving up so many big plays, it's just kind of hard to say that a guys is

playing good, you know, having a good season. Yeah, it is tough to say, and man, once again, I think we need both of those guys back whenever it comes to Cheeto and for Anthony Brown, the fact that just having that reped and having that flexibility whenever it comes to having the depth chart and the guys that are actually at the top of the depth chart available, I think it's gonna pay dividends for the secondary pretty much immediately. They're gonna come back in Dix is getting those reps.

Like Isaiah just said, he wasn't on the initial list from g but Digs is a guy who you have seen some improvement upon, but he's had to improve because if not, you're you're getting torched by everyone through the first four weeks this season. And he finally gets maybe a little bit of a break this week because who's he gonna go up against is a golden tape. No, he's probably gonna be suspended. But there's a couple different players you could look and point to to say they

would make an immediate impact coming back. I think both those corners would all Right. This one's from Ross Waddell. He says, assuming there is no external free agent sign like we talked about in the last segment, what are some internal personnel changes, if any, do you see being made to improve the defense. Heck, we'll start with you on this one man. Internal personnel changes like say playing Neville Gallimore instead of Tristan Hill. Yeah, yeah, though, I

mean that's what you gotta do. You have to give. We just alluded to that, giving your rookies and guys that you need to get a look at, because right now, the looks that you're getting from Tristan Hill. Although Tristan Hill, again, he's a splash player, you see it, and then there's other times where you turn on the turn on the tape and he's getting reached and it's just it's a bad look for him. Done. Terry Poe, I don't as a as a veteran in this league for as long

as he's been right now, he hasn't. He isn't pleased with his production. And Antoine Woods right now would be his replacement. We have it. We got to look pretty much at all hands on deck mentality with getting this front four shored up. Rob. Yeah, that's a good one. And you know Antoine has gotten more snaps the last two or three games, So I wonder if that's going to continue to try to shore up things in there. Um, you know, we'll see what happens with the safety position

next to Xavier Um. Mike Nolan wasn't ready to Mike McCarthy weren't answer ready to answer that question about Donovan Wilson or Darian Thompson. I'm still waiting on Brandon Carr. You know, if they're not going to do anything outside the roster, where's he at? You know, where can we cease more of him? Because I think he's gotten like four snaps the last two games, and he's been at corner a couple of times. But uh, they signed him

with the idea that he could help at safety. So I wonder you know where he is, you know, coming off no training camp, and and uh whether they could get him involved the other thing too. I thought Mickey Spagnola made a great point in terms of setting the edge in the run game. You know, when they're in a three four look, you're asking edge rushers to be you know, function as strong side linebackers, and or can

they can they do that? You know? And so how you know, how from an alignment standpoint, are they going to maybe change things up to try to help in that area that that was That was something that popped up watching it back that I thought was a really

good point. So if you were to switch that up, Rob, would it be going back to like a base four three instead of staying with that that three four or that four three under type of Look, you might, I mean you might have to look at it, you know it just you know, you're a month end of the season and you got to look at your personnel and say, are we equipped to do that or at least as much as you would like to. And so maybe they're not,

you know, maybe maybe because some of the injuries. You know, Isaiah spoke to it, and after watching this last game, like I think the question was who are they missing most? Who's injured? Joe Thomas is coming and done some really good things, but man, they miss late in Vanderish. They're really miss him because I think he compliments Jalen Smith skills so well and they don't. They don't have that linebacking corps is really is really hurting just from a

number standpoint right now. And Isaiah, I know last week, whenever we asked that question on who we miss the most in terms of who was not available for the cowboys, you said late in Vanderesh, But does that kind of translate into maybe some of the switches you would make internally? I think you guys are starting to allude to it. I think you have It has to be a scheme thing.

I think they probably recognize at this point in ten at three four, we're not equipped properly for a three four, or at least the guys aren't play up to that level right now. So I think it is one part as a scheme, and then the second part is, man, just competition, peer competition. Man, those guys have to figure out a way. I don't know what the practices look like, obviously, but they have to find a way to get the competitive juices flowing because right now it looks like guys

are just collecting the check. And to Rob's point, I want to see Reggie Robinson, man, Yeah, but Reggie at man, I want to I want to see I want to see Robinson. I mean, he's competitive in college. I'm sure that they're allowing him to kind of get his feet underneath them. But shoot, at this point, maybe you don't throw anybody out there. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing is they made the switch because he was drafted in the fourth round out of Tulsa. He was a corner,

he was a straight corner, didn't play any safety. They made the switch in training camp seemingly to move him over to safety, and he was seeing some first second team reps. So if you're not gonna go with Darien Thompson, or you're not gonna develop Donovan Wilson, why not give some opportunities to Reggie Robinson. I'll throw another name in here. I want to see Bradley and I fellas. I want to see Bradley and I can do. I know he's only had like, I think he's had maybe six snaps

in terms of the entirety of the season. He's looked good on couple of let me even add a pressure. I think his first or second snap of his NFL career he had a pressure and he was in the backfield immediately. So I like Bradley and I on tape, and I think he could make an impact. Yes, heckma, Yeah.

I wanted to, you know, and Isaiah, I wanted to ask you something, especially you know, being that you came out of a Belichick system and I feel as though when we were talking about what Rob was saying that on the Mickey conversation with Lineman actually scheme wise playing out of position. Now, coaches break down their practices by periods and so all of it is about teaching the fundamentals. And when you turn on the tape, there are just certain things that you see that are just not showing

up that should be taught. And just like inside drills, when you do an inside drill, that's just practicing against the team running the ball, against your look. And if you knew going into the Cleveland game they were going to hold up on you with you know, twelve and all the different personnel packages that they have, and you still gave up three hundred and seven. What's happening during that inside drill of that period that's not translating to the game. I wish I could watch practice, and I

wish I could answer that. Um, you know, definitively, I don't know what their practices look like. I can tell you when I was in New England, I can tell you when I was in Seattle, you know, even here in Dallas, Man, you know, it was competitive, I mean

like it was. Those periods were very competitive, and it was because of the culture that was established at those at those places, and the players there they cared enough, right, I mean when you when I was here in Dallas, you mean you had Tank and Spears and Hatch and Ratliff, and those guys weren't gonna just take getting blown off the ball. Even though you had Flozella, Adams and Colombo

and Andre Gerade. There were bullies on both sides of the ball, and nobody we talked about that manhood thing, right, We talked about manhood yesterday, right, Nobody wanted to get their manhood taken right on. And even in practice, Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't okay, right, So you take that, you know, you take that competitive environment. You play way more snaps in practice than you ever play in a game, right, So if it's not established in practice, don't expect for

the show up in the game. Yeah, it's got to carry over. And I like the question, Heckman, because especially with a Belichick kind of background here, you gotta see what practice is, because that's what's important, are the reps you get in practice for those young guys to develop and to find their way into positions. Maybe that's why we're not seeing a Bradley and I are Reggie Robinson and Gallimore and guys like that who we thought could make an impact in twenty twenty. But uh, it's something

to look forward to moving on. They might be brother in law in it. You never know, right, and brother in lawn is just hey. In practice, you know where guys are kind of taking, you know, a half speed reps because I'm a vet and I don't I can't risk getting hurt. You know what I'm saying. I know where I'm supposed to be. This is my capit supps to be in and then all of a sudden you go into the game and all I'm much gonna cut it on. No you're not. No, you're not You're not

gonna cut it on because that's not you. That's not your brother in law. On the other side, now, that's a grown man that really doesn't care much about you. So I don't know if that's what they're doing. I wish I could see it, but I get the feeling as if there's they're they're not going as fast as they can in practice. Maybe they're trying to preserve these guys and they don't want them to get injured because they don't have a lot of depth at this point, Fellas.

We got to compete, man, we got to compete, and it's not showing up And just for the fans perspective, And Chris Beam reminded me in the back, it wasn't Tank Lawrence on those teams. It was Tank Johnson. Correct, But I say, Lawrence, I think you said Lawrence my fault. You said Tank. You just said Tea ninety nine the doll that's my guy. Different most, I guess, can't fans. Most Cowboys fans would probably realize that Tank Lawrence has been here for the entire of his career. No, it's

not on you. We're it's not on you. We're just similar making sure to stay clear throughout the talking Cowboys. Okay, so fans on the fifty, there's a lot of questions we didn't get to. We're gonna get to them on Twitter and try and answer as many as we can because we just ran out of time kind of talking about these these first couple ones, but keep sending them in. We'll answer them on Twitter. We'll get those things answered

for you throughout the rest of the day. But when we come back, we've got first quarter grades We're gonna do this throughout the rest of the week. But what are your grades for the offense. We'll give that to you when we come back. You're on talking Cowboys. I'm Jay Novachek, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day, I was the guy who always got the tough yards and that's why I run with John

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Last year of the Tuesday edition of Talking Cowboys, Glad you're with us, Heck Harrison, Isaiah stand back, Rob Phillips, I'm Kyle Yeoman's whether you're watching from home or cheering in the stance. With selor lenses, you'll see every exciting play. As always, book an appointment at your local esselor experts and find the perfect lenses for you. See more, do more or of course that's the that's Isaiah's favorite read it see dances here in the studio for those who

are listening to the podcast not watching. But we can't see it today. I know even even the two virtual members of our crew today can't see Isaiah. This is just dancing on the side. It's a little bit. It's a bit of a travesty. I'm everywhere and nowhere, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Okay, So starting this week, and we'll do this at the end of every quarter

of the season. Of course, coaches, media, front office members, they always want to look at the NFL season in quarters, and of course the Cowboys first quarter a one and three one and very easily could have been one. Who are three and one? A very easily could have been oh and four. There's different ways where it could have gone.

But it ended up one and three. But we're gonna give individual grades to each of these units whenever it comes to the Cowboys, and we're gonna start on the offensive side of the football, and we'll start with the passing game. And these are grades A through F. You can give a plus, you can give a minus. It's anything goes here. But Rob will start with you on this one. Passing game is where we'll start A through F.

What's your first quarter grade? I gotta give it an A. I have to dax On pace for like sixty seven hundred yards or something, just absurd. I think the record is fifty seven hundred maybe something by by Paid Manning in twenty thirteen when he put fifty one on the Cowboys and in that duels Romo. I mean, it's ridiculous

just based off stats. That being said, it's not leading to wins, and it's not the way they want to play offensively, but when you see the capability that they have in the passing game, so I have to give it a name. Okay, Rob, all right, excuse me, heckman, I'm gonna go A. I gotta go A. And I believe that these three well ceedee Lamb is as advertised. I know, with the secondary of problems, you've even sought to hear the rumblings of people saying, well, oh, we

shouldn't got a safety. No, we shouldn't have got a ceedee lamb in seventeen and he is. He's proven it, man, He's one of those two eights with pride, and he's putting in work. I think there are some things that you can look back to as far as the Seattle game on some routes that I received was just kind of alligator on, didn't run the route completely and cause the turnover. Maybe uh, it's just those little things that

maybe get you the A minus. But when dak is on pace to throw for sixty seven sixty seven hundred yards, it's really hard to say anything less than an A for the passing game. Well, I'm gonna say something else that beside from A. Heckma, all right, I'm coming in there and I'm saying a B, not even a B plus, not even a B plus. It was I knew it, it was. That's that's what you got rout this guy. Man. That's why I couch, I said, because it's not leading.

Because I couch, I say it's not leading to win because I knew, I say, I was gonna say, yeah, it's great number. The numbers are these are empty calories. But you know what he's doing to us. He's he's cattle, He's cattle proud and us man understand this. I might have played a lot of positions. One of the one of the positions was quarterback, right, and I happen to play quarterback for the New England Patriots for a while. Right, My standards for quarterback play and precision and game management

is rather high. And Dak has not been the most accurate passer this year, and he has gotten lucky on a lot of balls. If you go back and watch these first four games, there's probably at least nine to ten balls that should have been intercepted. I'm talking about straight through guy's hands. Straight not even tip balls, no, no, no, these are balls straight to through guy's hands. Linebackers, safeties, corners, Trey Flowers sitting on the floor. Right, ball hit him

in a chest. So they've gotten really lucky, really lucky through this first quarter of the season. And yes, he has amazing stats, but a lot of those stats can win when you're when you're when you're when you're coming from behind. I've been mentioning it. You're coming from behind, and the secondaries are playing soft. You're not seeing the team's best. So I'm gonna give it a B because it's not happening when it matters. I agree with you.

And there have been multiple occasions where it could have easily ended up in a turnover. I mean, even though Mari touchdown passed, and the first quarter of Sunday's game could have ended up in an interception or a knockdown pass turnover on downs. And that's the one thing that Isaiah will not let anybody hang their hat on. Anything that starts with if right. He has a saying for and if true, and that's what he basically just did himself.

He just said, if happens, goot, if the if the ball if I mean, come on, man, no, it was a completion. You have to go with what what what? What? What happened in the game. We can't say that was almost he got the yard and he did. He doesn't have I'm not taking I'm not taking. So you got a great at least a B plus. No, it's a bus It was almost as it was. It was almost a B minus. Heck, what I'm saying is I'm not

taking anything waste. But he's done. But the same way that you say him and Baker Mayfield had very similar stats in terms of touchdown turnover ratio coming into the game. Actually Dak had more turnover yes, right, so the same way that we say, hey, well, force Baker Mayfield to throw the ball because guess what, He's gonna give you a few opportunities. Right, How how can we look at it any differently when we look at that he's gonna

if I'm he's gonna give you some opportunities. Good. He might bring the fire whenever it comes to some of these hot takes, but he backs it up with a bit of gas too when he comes in there hot whenever you need it. I would give an a minus based off of the turnovers and the lack of winning. But I think Dak still is cooking. I think he's a guy who can he can lead you to the promised Land. I've said that forever. He's still really good as a quarterback. And I think this wide receiving corps

is just the real deal. All Right, we only have time for one more, so we'll get into the trenches tomorrow. Running game heckma, what are you guy in terms of your running game grade so far? Right now? You know what we're gonna get into tomorrow on the running game kind of intertwined, but we're gonna have to get a running game a see at this point because the our running game has been because of leads and things like that.

We just had and had much of it, and we haven't been able to set the pacing games and you know, take the air out of the ball by just pounding guys and running ruling time of possession. And I'm especially last game, man, it didn't look as though Ezekiel Elliott could get into any kind of rhythm. And this the turnovers just starting to worry me. You know, Zeke coming out of college was never a guy that we thought

was going to be a turnover machine. But now going into the twenty twenty season, man, he's put a couple of balls on the ground and it's not starting to look good. And it's four defensive guys. I'm sure that's one of their achilles hill and one of the things that they hate the most is a running back that fumbles. So what was your grade again? I didn't hear the letter grade. It's a C. It was a C MICUs C minus. Okay, Rob, what you gut um, I'll probably

go like a C plus. I mean, I think it's been it's almost like an incomplete sample in a way because of what Heckma just said. They haven't we haven't really seen it. You know, it's not the way they wanted to be. I think he's only got seventy two carries, and aside from putting the ball in the ground, I think he looks like he's he's running well, he looks he looks great. But you know, can they establish the

line of scrimmage to help achieve that balance. I don't think we've yet to see that consistently because of the time and score and all that. But I mean, he's under he's on pace to have under three hundred carries for the first time in his career. So it's just been a weird start. So I don't think you can give it, you know, a B or above at this point. Okay, Isaiah, before you go, I know you're about to go off here because I know you're upset with the running game.

I'm gonna give mine and I'm gonna say a D plus. And the reason why is because one Tony Pollard has been nothing but just kind of a couple carries here and there. He hasn't had that same kind of explosiveness that we've seen. I agree with Rob and the fact that it's been a simple or a very small sample size, but overall, I want Tony Pollard to see a little bit more. And then when it comes to Ezekiel Elliot,

you can't average a fumble per game. I mean, if you had sixty fumbles on a season, that's you're not just talking about one of the worst seasons in his career, but one of the luster season. Owns it too exactly, and he said that in this postgame crash conference, and I'm sure he'll say it throughout the week. Is he's got to hold onto the football and he will. I have faith that he'll turn it around. But in terms of the first quarter of the season, you can't average

a fumble a game. You have, like you said, the lack of carries, but still even yards per play has not been as high as we've seen for Ezekiel Elliot as well. So I'm gonna give him a D plus with room for improvement, much room for improvement, but it just hasn't been there yet. I appreciate you for keeping getting up here. You guys gave a passing grade. A passing. Y'all passed the Cowboys. Yeah, y'all just pushed them up to the next level. If they were in the mind,

if they were in eleventh grade. Right now, you guys are pushing them over all the way to twelfth grade right now. That's what y'all are doing right now. I'll come on, you've gotten one of those coaches are to keep it real. People rely on us to keep it one hundred with them, regardless if it's popular or not. These dudes are a D, and I'm gonna go with I'll just say D. I'm not even gonna say pless or mind. I'm just gonna say a D. It's six

it's dog sixty five percent. They sitting right in the middle, all right, and listen up. This is why these passing Is it passing? He No, it ain't passing. You can't even pass college what it would would have c I mean, listen up. These dudes have abandoned. They have abandoned the run in half of their games this year. They've had to abandon their run in over half of their games. Ezekiel Elliott, What in the Seattle game had how many rushing yards? Thirty four yards off twelve carries? This game

he had what or fourteen carries? He had fifty four yards on what fourteen carries? Yeah? Okay, and you guys are giving me that at C. Come on, fellas, that's that's not even That's not even a real thing. Cowboys are known for running the ball. So what we have amazing receivers, So what we have a quarterback who's throwing it all over the field in the second half, right, but these dudes are are known for running the ball. This offensive line, even with that the depth issues, is

still above average offensive line. So how is it that they can't establish a running game? This is not a C running game right now. It should be, and hopefully it will be once all these guys get back on officsive line. But right now they had they don't get a passing grade. They gotta they gotta redo the class, gotta redo it. Yes, it was eighty six, the first game, eighty six, the first game like eighty five, the second

game one hundred and thirteen. No, no, so what Kyle asked, was the first quarter of the season, and we have to take into consideration the first two games. Isaiah. Come on, now, well come on, I see I see your point, because like they're they're out of whack balance wise by their own doing because of the turnovers. So I get that. So maybe I'll drop it to a sea. But I'm not gonna give it a d. We just haven't seen it enough. I think they have the capability to do it,

but they haven't. It hasn't been established at all. So you know, it's not like they've been unable to run the ball. They just the time and score by their own doing hasn't allowed it. kW I'm pretty sure these guys got nice honey Chris apples on their desk the first day of class because this is ridiculous. We can definitely see where who was that? Yeah in school? Yeah, now there you go. That's gonna do it for talking.

We're gonna end it on that note. For Parson, for Rob Phillips, for Isaiah danback special thanks to Chris Beam in the back up Kyle Yeoman, thanks for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow at nine thirty on Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.