Talkin' Cowboys: Who Wins The Chess Match?

Jason Garrett's just completed his press conference. The team is out on the practice field. The special teams guys are out on the practice field. The rest of the team is inside on the practice field at Ford Center, as is their custom. As it's gotten a bit chilly and brisk out there, and so it's a good test for Brett Maher as well as lp let us are and Chris Jones out on the outdoor field here because the

elements on Sunday will not be ideal. Have you seen the weather forecast making I think they're gonna be worse than ideal. Yes, As a matter of fact, Sunday high of forty four a low of thirty. And so since the game starts at four twenty five Eastern time, that's nighttime, that's the that's the we're getting the worst of it that far east, that's nighttime. By second half, it's going to be ugly winds ten to twenty miles an hour.

And the report is on Sunday, the amount of rain that starts at one hundred percent in the day and seventy percent at night could reach an inch. Oh wow, Okay. So you said it's going to be forty four degrees with the window ten to high. Okay, and I guarantee you when the sun goes down it's closer to Okay. Well, right now here in Frisco, Texas, it's forty five degrees and there's more wind out there than what they're going to face on Sunday. So it's perfect for the perfect.

So the term that was a subjective term. Subjective. Yeah, he said that they were ideals. It was less than the Patris might life these right, Yeah, exactly, they might. Yeah, relative term. I guess someone said that normally when it's a bad weather and they're playing at home, they practice outdoors, get used to it. Yeah, that's what we're doing, exactly right. We're comparing down right now. That's exactly right. So they are going to need Zeke Elliott after all in this game.

The narrative that they're a passing offense. Only now I think you might need your star running back in this game. Yea. And you might need more than forty four yards in this game rushing. Yes, h yes, we'll tell Jason not to you know too, go ahead and put them on the Boston OK. Yeah, back, Because all I know is when Baltimore beat the Patriots, mark Ingram ran for one hundred and fifteen yards. Lamar Jackson ran for sixty one

yards and two touchdowns. They ran for the three touchdowns of the four I think they've given up rushing, and then they added another twenty seven and seven, So to me, that's almost that's like around two hundred yards rushing. Yeah, but that comes from Lamar Jackson sixty one Yeah. No, No, just the fact that one that opens it up for Ingram. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how that went. I saw that game. I thought Belichick got completely out coach. No, that doesn't happen.

He was saving it for the post shot defensively especially. You could just see the Patriots they were like, what what just happened? Is comics going through here? One number eight on his jersey, and now Ingram is you know, yeah, he's he's he's kind of enjoying himself. Yeah. Well he's a little quick. He's quick. He's quick, yeah, all right? He uh and you know when he puts that Ravens jersey and he actually looks slower you know with the Saints, Yeah,

a little bit. Yeah, I don't know that the color, the culture, what I mean, you think Ravens, you think you know, black cleats, Yeah, that'll do it. He looked like being in malone to somebody coming through that. So it was two hundred and ten yards by the Ravens rushing in that game. Lamar Jackson actually had more carries than mark Ingram in that game sixteen to fifteen. You're right. I mean, they just kept pounding away with Jackson and

they didn't really have an answer for it. Now, they made some plays offensively themselves New England, but that's the you know, Dak has not been that guy. They haven't used Dak in that way. He's been more of a pocket passer and they kind of selectively use him, but that was something that worked against New England. Well, you can't. You can't say that he can't be used that way. He can't. He can't. He can't be that person. You know, you can't beat Lamar. You can't use Dack like that.

That's just not what his game is. Now. He can run, but I don't think you want to make a I have a heavy dose of him. I think we're going to see a lot of it to see if if the Patriots have learned the lesson. I mean every coach does that. You know, whatever happens to you the previous week, if it was the Achilles heel, then let's the ensuing game. The coach is going to see if you've learned your lesson.

So we're going to test him and see if they've learned that their lesson and see if they can stop them. That's a good point, or the back that's a good point because you know, the screen game is something that worked against Dallas against Minnesota, and you can bet it's part of the Patriots offense anyway. But I'm fairly confident see that that's what they do and see if I stop it. Hope Jerry talking about holding that jello in

your hand. You know when he kind of get it balanced one way and then it flops the other way. That's what happens in this game. You'd worry about one thing, do you long time analogies? How it's hard to take care of this is it's like the apple pie on the on the movie. I mean, what's he done with the jello? Actually, my better analogy than his is it's like playing Whackable. Once you knock down one mole, the other mole comes up, right, Okay, something always sprouts, that's true,

all right. The Patriots of have the number one defense, but when you look at their rush defense, they are tenth in the league and rush defense, but they have blown out so many opponents this year that you would think most of those opponents weren't rushing the football a whole lot, and especially in the second half of those games. So you look at their yards per attempt and they've given up four point six yards per attempt on the season. Who could be against the so called pre event defense

or protecting the league? You're right defense, because this doesn't make sense because Buffalo ran for one hundred and thirty five year yards, So they must have had a big run because they average six point one an attempt. Washington and I don't understand this one. They ran for one hundred and forty five yards and Cleveland one hundred and fifty nine yards. That team in the game where they Yeah, why would they've been running? You have been going to

catch up. It doesn't make sense. And then Baltimore two ten twenty twenty two attempts. Well, Mick, you said it a couple of days ago. The fact that they are so unique with their front seven and they don't use a lot of down defensive lineman play to play, maybe that makes them a little susceptible in the run game, you know, but they they're still pretty sound defensively overall.

Oh yeah, and I know that. I think the the Eagles got up ten nothing in that game and then gained about twenty two yards on the next few drives. You know, they have a way of buckling down on you. There's the ridiculous part about it. They've they'd lead the league. They've only given up third team touchdowns, but only nine on defense. They've had four returns for touchdowns against the interesting nine touchdowns. We gotta go find somebody to pick

on the score. No, these were all scooping scores. One interception, three fumbles. I think Baltimore recovered a fumble in the end zone. So yeah, night. And to think about that nine touchdowns on defense in ten games, Who's who's ever heard of that? Eighty five Bears two. The Saints in their Super Bowl year had a lot of returns. I seem to recall, all right, we're just getting started here on talking Cowboys. We can get to the elephant in the room when we come back in just a moment

to talking Cowboys. Talking Cowboys continues inside the SWBC Mortgage studios here at the Star in Frisco. Bill Jones, Mickey Spagnola, Rob Phillips, and we've been joined this week by Everson Walls as well. He's gonna talk about the Cowboys and the Patriots. And now, what is that elephant in the room. That would be the linebacker or Layton vander Es. Jason Garrett had his press conference that concluded just a few minutes ago this morning. To get the official update on

Layton and Rob, were you doing a story on that? Yes, should be on the website. Not gonna play this week. I'm not sure exactly when he's gonna be back. I think Jason and Garrett said hopefully fairly soon. He made a point of saying it's not a career threatening injury, it's not even a season threatening injury. But the question

is when he'll be able to get back. Cowboys have a lot of games coming up in a short amount of time and they just need that neck to calm down Mickey, And it's something that probably is related to what he had a couple of weeks ago where he missed part of the Eagles game before the bye, and then even after the buye he didn't play against New York. And you're looking at two games in five days with Buffalo coming here next Thursday, three games in twelve days

with a trip to Chicago the following Thursday. And Mickey is, if you're not watching on Texas twenty, well you can't see it anyway because we're seeing Layton Banderah. Mickey just motioned the out call for all three games. Mickey is calling it come I would imagine so. And by the way, it's the wolf in the room, not the elephant. Yeah, there you go. How about that, yek what's a week once a month, my time of the month there it is. He just took. So I mean, yeah, think about it.

You're gonna play a game in four days after after Sunday, and he's not going to play that game, and then you don't get a long break, so it's only a week more. So I would think conservatively he's gonna miss three games. Rob's right, it's not career threatening. Um. They're hopeful that he could get back at some point this year, but it may take a while. They've got to let

this thing calm down. Um, you know, and I haven't heard officially what it is, but when you hear neck and you're gonna be out that long, you probably got a little bit of a herniation of a disc up there or something going on when you've already had something here a few weeks ago, and it's kind of it kind of arose a little bit um after the game on Sunday. Uh and and so yeah, they've got to do whatever they can to let it calm down, because now you know the the downside. The worst thing is

that you have to have fusion, you have surgery. The Cowboys have had guys do that previously. Um, off the top of my head, uh, Darryl Johnston. Uh and and they go in and basically remove the disc and they fuse the two vertebrae together. Um, and he played another year. I think Randy, I think it was post because that's why.

And the scary thing about that is you can you can do it once, but if if, if you have to do it twice because you put more pressure on the disc blow or above, then you're basically stiff necked the rest of your lot to that point. No, no, And I'm saying, but it has happened when everybody goes as it career threatening and Chad Headings had this the same fusion surgery at one point and he came back and looks good. DJ, he looks real good. Right now, DJ just played one more year. Uh and he was

basically after and of course it would be done. Yeah. So so anyway, UM, you got to be careful with this. And um, DJ is different because he's a moose. Yeah. So yeah, it's Uh, it's unfortunate. It's bad timing, especially the team they're going to play and how they play their running backs and how much they throw to them. So Sean Lee, you're up. Joe Thomas, you're up. I got no problem with Sean Lee covering backs out of

the backfield. He's shown that before. In fact, this week, I was sitting there wondering as many three receiver sets as the Patriots use. I was wondering, how much is Sean Lee going to even play in this game? Right? I think as a SAM linebacker was going to play a lot. Now. Although I saw they may be down Mohammed sanou Um, it looks like he hadn't practice yet this week. And I saw a story that pointed out that no one has played for the Patriots this year

if they missed the first two days of practice. So I don't know if that's an indication or how bad it is. Good right, and so that means they for their uh, you'll have Edelman, uh Dorset got back into practice, and then their third guy will either be Jacoby Myers or nikkil Harry, who's played just one game this year. The rookie Myers has played nine games this year, and they would have to use one of those two guys. And nikil Harry is the first round draft pick. He's

a really talented guy. But as as I think any of us would know, with Tom Brady, I mean to get on the same page quickly with Tom Brady. I mean, you you've got to have it upstairs, right. You have to be where you're supposed to be, exactly it's supposed to be. I get into you don't worry. It makes me, I don't know, fills me with a little bit of hope. It's tough coming out and playing with an injury in these conditions that that we're expecting up in the East Coast.

It's it's uh, that might be something good for us, not in regards to Vanda Sean Lee, but their wide receiver is being a little bit hobbled or limited in some way. That's when you really put the pressure as a defensive back. You know, if I'm going up against Dorset, I'm not going to back off of him the entire game. I'm going to be in his face the entire game.

Put pressure on. And the weather itself, you know, inclement weather expected, it's it's going to be tough for anybody who's injured to be out there, to be close to to to and you know what door set. You know, it's a concussion thing. So sometimes when you've had a concussion, they want you to go out there and do something physical and they listen to them as limited and then see how you uh, if there's any residual effect of it. So just because he was limited doesn't mean he's cleared

concussion protocol. He probably has to do something today to clear And we've seen that happen before. And I think it was last week or the week before somebody was in concussion protocol and they ended up practicing unlimited base and the next thing they know, they got ruled out.

So we'll see where that one goes. But to Bill's point, you know, they get their running backs involved heavily, not just in the running game, but James White forty eight catches, Birkhead, they're getting him back in the mix a little bit. Eighteen catches already, so Michelle as well. And so that's part of the short passing games, part of the screen game. They're gonna try to get a lot of guys in ball. They probably had to because get you mentioned ever since

some of the injuries they've had at wide receiver. Yeah, what about Van DUIs, I've been watching him this year. The Jets game was kind of the thing, like the beginning of the a tough season for him. He seemed to get a little exposed trying to cover some of the running backs and playing pass. All linebackers have been really getting cut off by these offensive linemens just in their faces. Whether the oppositions running wide or whether they're

coming up the middle. You've got big defensive linemen in in Smith's face. Vanderas Sean Lee, Yeah, I don't. I haven't seen the Vanderish that I was looking forward to this year. I've seen him make way too many mistakes and it had nothing to do with his ability. I was like almost guessing what hold the film and not cassing right or not. If they seem react slower than usual, that's why these linemen are getting These are the uncovered linemen, and gets Minnesota were so fast in their face they

didn't not have a chance. Now, I don't know that it has anything to do with the defensive linemen not holding them up enough. As you know. I know that's been practiced, you know when I was here with the Cowboys, But they are jumping out in their faces so much. I saw I saw Smith just trying to run from the cut blocks. The top blocks were coming at him and then it was up if it was up the middle. They couldn't get off the blocks that ten yards down

the field. So I saw Vandersch having the same problems. But I expected more from him because he's the brute. He's that guy Smith. I don't want to call him Ackilly Smith. Smith. Smith is known to run. He's born, he's born to run. He's a ladable guy. But Vanderes has that lad of ability. But I expected him to be that brute up the middle. He was going to replace Sean Lee and be that guy that we can stop the teams, that can stop the teams from coming

between the tackles. That's what I thought he was here for, which is what he did last year. This year has not been the case. Well, the thing that Sean Lee has done throughout his career is I mean, he dissects that plays exactly. He can even pre snap. He has an anticipation of where it's coming, and he can avoid those blocks and so and it's so it's something he has it naturally and he has it through preparation. And

I think Layton has that same work ethic. But still, you know, it's takes some time in this league to Sean Lee. La was that last week just sniffed out the screen before the hun you know, those the kind of things that that which makes him a faster player. And well that's what helped me. If you can anticipate, then yeah, you know one step ahead, you know, and I was so slower than that that even things up.

So but now, and you know, and I wonder if it affects how the Cowboys play their linebackers in this game because of I don't know how much you want Sean Lee man the man on James White and you know, out in the flat all the time, and he was having problems with Ulph and the Vikings, the Vikings Gay right. The other thing that occurred to me as well, maybe you want to play more dime, but now you're down

a cornerback without Anthony Brown. And I'm wondering because I've heard I can't remember if one of the coaches said this, or maybe Jerry Um if you say, well, if I got to play dime, maybe I bring Xavier Woods back into the slot and then put Thompson back at safety. That's something he did his rookie year, right, And that's what that's basically what he played as down the street with those young corners started playing as rookies. He was

their slot corner. So that's interesting. That's in a pinch, you can do that. Yeah, I mean if you're getting beat underneath because you know your slot guy's gotta take Edelman, I mean that's gonna be Jordan Lewis, and you know, and the next the next cornerback up is is good one. And they haven't really played him at cornerback. And we should point out Jeff Heath has been a full participant in this week. All right, we continue with Moore talking

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and wow, what a great football weekend. This is too. In the NFL, there's a lot of games and matching up winning teams against winning teams, including the three twenty five kickoff on Sunday the Cowboys and the Patriots. All right, Mickey, I want to ask you. You're talking about the possibility of maybe using more dime. So in the dime defense, Sean Lee would come off the field. What what do you anticipate them going to more? More than anything, Yeah,

I still think they'll They'll probably play well. They'll have to play a lot of nickel for sure. And maybe when you get into pure passing situations, you go to dime, bring Xavier Woods down from safety, put them in the slot yet Jordan Lewis and the other slot, and you play one linebacker. And I don't know if that one linebacker is consistently Jalen Smith or it could be Sean Lee since he runs things. This is gonna be I

think a very cerebral game. It is on both sides of the ball, because as you talk about the person and by the way, I didn't know you and Jerry discussed the game plan. It sounds like the game playing. Jerry's in the huddle and you're listening to him. That's the main things bag. You're actually writing that down. The cerebral part of it I can see is we started talking about personnel. Uh, it's gonna be some Aaron rod just crap going on out there. They're gonna trying to

catch us with the wrong personnel many times. Go huddle real quick, right, you know, Brady started that before Aaron Rodgers. So that's that's gonna be part of that chess match that we're going to be seen throughout the entire game. And the other flip side of it, on the other side of the ball, do how do the Patriots attack the Cowboys offense? We talked about that a little bit today. They've proven here to be a kind of a pick

your poison offense. But do does Belichick try to do what these other teams have done and shut down the run and with so much confidence in secondary to handle up on the back end. I can see that doing a lot. I mean he always does a lot of audibling I can see even more. You know, you might audible your way out of a good play. Yeah, you think may uh, you know, determine you to do that just by the look just maybe trying to confuse you.

That would be a worst case scenario. Is audibling too much? Uh, and therefore you can't control the pace of the game like the Saints game and where the crowd was into it, it won't be as bad, but as far as the confusion aspect of it, that could be something that they have to deal with offensively, especially maybe the rainal quiet the people down. But you're but you're right, and you know because you got to figure out what all those

linebackers are doing. Right, And I had it put to me that it's more of an annoyance than anything else, Like you got to you gotta try to figure out what and that's going to be the problem. I might slow the problem, Yes it will. So that's what I mean about the pace it's self. Dak won't be in the control that if he's still trying to figure out what they're trying to do. So I would imagine if I'm an offensive coordinator, Look, once you make a call,

let's just go with it. Let's just go with it, and then you still read your keys and you still make a safe play. There's always, no matter what the play is, there's an outlet somewhere. You just have to find it, you know, the outlet has to be available. So if the Cowboys can just all be on one page with that, I hope they did. I hope they were here at the start with a bunch of noahs and all that, because it's going to be it's gonna be prevalent that they understand and to stay poised throughout

the entire game. Because normally the center can help you with some of the calls, but the way they move their linebackers around outside, I don't know if the center can see all of that stuff. Right. He and Dak have to work together on that, yeah, and and the other lineman can help as well. And I think you know, if he said it once yesterday, he said it ten times when they were when Kellen Moore did his interview before or the locker room opened up, and he kept

using the word communication to communicate. We have to have great communication. And that's because I'll guarantee of Philadelphia, they were off. They couldn't figure out who was coming, who was dropping five sacks. I think it was well And that was after Lane Johnson went out. They lost the right time. They lost Peters to Lane Johnson. That was later in the game. But things were going fine for them protecting a quarterback, and then they lost Lane Johnson

and it was like a rapid fire, you know. And that's the other thing the Patriots do. They see a weakness and they'll expose it very quickly. I suggest you go on on Dallas Cowboys dot com and check out the film room with Will McClay. He breaks down this Patriots defense and then specifically shows three plays where how they used Jamie Collins, and on one of the plays, Jamie Collins is setting the edge as a defensive end.

The next play he shows he's lined up as an inside backer, and then he also shows him running a stunt inside getting to the quarterback. You know, Jamie Collins is a guy who has six sacks on the season, He's got three picks, he's got seven tackles for lossy and you know, it's it's Betty versatility right there. It's

pretty much. Of course, he started his career with the Patriots, went away and then he was at Cleveland and comes back to the Patriots, and you know they're using him I got to say, I just had one more thought, going back to the pace of the game. Cowboys gonna have to go quick snap a lot. That's that there's the same thing and Natan Newton always says the same thing, make you laugh, make you coy. You're a big guy, then yeah you're gonna bully somebody. But if you're too big,

then somebody's gonna buy around you. So there's got there's always um a disadvantage that you put yourself in when you disguise, and we can catch him in in uh while they're disguising and go with a quick snap mayby once in a while, especially in key situations. Then that that way we can at times put the pace of the team of the game in our favor. Maybe go hurry up. Believe hurry up would be great, would be great because it's not like you got to take care

of one guy. When it comes to sacks for them, Collins has six, Van Noy has five and a half. Adam Butler Adam Butler five, Duncanville, Texas three hunder and he's got five and a half sacks rushing from the inside, and Chase Winovic has four and a half rookie and then they've got a bunch of guys with three so that's coming from all tower Danny Shelton. Yeah, that's three sacks. So they're linebackers or lead them in sacks, and that shows you how they're playing them as like stand up

defensive ends. Well, once again, Michael Bennett is going to factor into this game for the Cowboys defense being inside rusher, maybe outside rusher as well. He's here because those guys they kind of change what they did midseason. That's so Belichick. You know, they went more linebacker heavy and he didn't get on the field. Yeah, the question was going to come up, like, wow, we've someone had to be a casualty, and I didn't even think of it that that Bennett

was that obvious agilty. He was the casualty and then he complained and became a big casualty when you know, he did get suspended before the trade. But I think more than anything, they just didn't find enough snaps for him. Well, you know he found the way. You found some snaps. Here's good, right, three snaps. How prevalent do you think he will be? He will be in the game itself. I mean, this guy, he knows this system. Yeah, and he's good. It's not like he's not any good some

guy that's over the hill just trying them. And he can tell him because you know when when I asked him, and I think I said it earlier about why this thing works, and he was saying that Van Noy the most athletic guy he ever played with. Wow, and that High Tower, uh, you know, and then Collins was the smartest. Yeah, and then High Tower can do everything. And so that's why they can kind of screw around back there and change things up because these guys know how to do it.

That's what they're doing. They're screwing around, screwing around back there. They're screwing around. Yes, he doesn't seem like you're either talking about thinking about when you go watch football practice the middle linebackers here, those strong side linebackers on the line of scrimmage, of the weak side linebackers over here off the line, I think they're all in the same spot. I think it's more organized chaos they than playing grah.

But yeah, I guarantee you if you're if you're the quarterback, you probably think they're screwing around back there. Oh, let me go stand over here for a while. Okay, we're gonna screw around some more here on Talking Cowboys here in just a moment, back to Talking Cowboys. Talking Cowboys continues inside the SWBC Mortgage Studios. We're happy you could join us, not only on Dallas Cowboys dot com, wherever you listen to or watch the show on a daily basis,

eleven o'clock every weekday morning. And by the way, next week we'll be Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Of course Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, and also on Texas twenty one. We appreciate you joining us here, and let's talk about Cowboys and Patriots a little bit. And what kind of atmosphere do you expect in Sunday's game as far as

Cowboys fans at the game on Sunday? Myself, when I saw the schedule, I went immediately, knowing that the Cowboys are playing in New England this year, immediately said, where's that New England game? If I was a fan and wanted to travel to a game, this is the game that I would have gone to that but I would pick that, would not pick this game. I wanted to be a basketball player because I hated the weather. Yeah, so yeah, I'm not going to watch that game. It's

a little too late. Another game coming out, but no, Well but Championship, those tickets aren't available. I bet you know the Patriot fans. I don't know how they act, but are they selling their tickets so they can make money? Because that's what happens here, right when when you see all these away Okay, well if it was just a regular game, but it's well, that's what I was about to say. Okay, cowboys coming to town. Okay, we're pumped that they're playing the Patriots. Okay, how much are the

Patriots pump that the Cowboys are coming down there? It's not just about you know, where they are statistically, the fact that they lost the game that they probably thought they shouldn't have lost, them talking about the Patriots, but it's also it's just a matter of pride. They want to be and they consider themselves because of the Championships America's team. Let's just be real, they are They said, well Craft and Jerry Jones, they got this crap going on.

You know, I think it had something to do with the flate gate, and then all of a sudden, here comes Zeke Elliotty's suspended. They said Craft might have been in there, you know, shaking his finger at the commissioner, like you better get him because you got my guy. So nah, I think it's it's a personal game, just like the Falcons game two years ago. I believe it was when Blank and Jerry Jones were having a little

little called the p fit. But yeah, But the other part of it is a few times that the Cowboys play the Patriots. I mean, this only happens every four years, and for the Cowboys to go there, it's been eight years since they since they played there. And no matter what you think, when that star shows up, people want to be there to see it. Oh, because they want

to cheer against them. There's been one time this year on the road so far where it didn't seem like a cow almost a dominant Cowboys presence, and that was New Orleans. I think you know a lot of Saints fans. They didn't sell their tickets, but I mean it felt like a home game last week in Detroit, and I'm sure there's gonna be a fair representation. So well. And then okay, so now that you take the primary players for the Cowboys, I mean you take the Zeke Elliots,

you take the Deak Press Scotts. We saw in their rookie year where they go on the road at Green Bay at Pittsburgh. That stage was not too big for them. They've played on the highest level in college football. They don't let you know how much they relish this opportunity to go play. We've seen so much crap since then, and we've forgotten just how growing up Zeke and Deak and their rookie year. I mean, that was domination. They went into Pittsburgh, into Pittsburgh. I talked about that game

a lot. You're one of the few people out here I here bring that up about not just you know, how how well Dak and Zeke played, but how how that team was sold together at that time. I had no doubt that they would win that game in Pittsburgh. There was no doubt, and the way they wanted it was so convincing. You know, they out Steelers the Steelers, and I'm looking forward to them and getting back to

that again. That those games, that's the ones that gives me hope and and you know, positivity about them getting back on track again, because that's pretty much it's we have We have a better team. Now. We have a better team now, No, no Dad, no dad, but we have three heck of it receivers now that we did not have it that time. Oh yeah, and Mary's feeling better this week. He said that yesterday he's been a full participant in practice. And I think somebody asked him

about Michael Gallup as a number two receiver. Ever sinting, he goes, I don't think he liked the question because he said that this guy's a number one too, and he's playing like it, you know, and second year in the league, he's really growing up as a as a you know, potentially elite receiver in this league week to week. And sort of an example for you, said about the excitement, the average ticket price for this game seven hundred nineteen dollars.

Is it really average? And I saw one site that it was as much as they were selling tickets on the secondary market for twenty two hundred dollars. I don't know where that was, right, And that for that much, I better have a roof over my head, right, it better be a suite right next to me. Right now. You talk about Gallup and number two receiver versus number one, Uh, Cowboys having more jobs. That's for anybody early on this season.

I don't know if that's still the case, but I promise you Gallup has not been dropping any more passes. And after that one one game, after that game, well it was really a couple of games where he had. It was most noticeable in the Jets games because they were missing Cobb and game and now the last game, the way he stepped up, you know, he knew Cooper was going to be hurt at least, you know, hobbled a bit, and he stepped up, and Dak challenged him,

the Keller Moore challenged him, and he came through. That was a good game for him. No drops, no turnovers, over one hundred yards. Start that right now. You want a key. There was ever a game to play a clean game, it's got to be this one, no question. Yeah, those dbs are gonna be after those cornerbacks are going to be in their faces. Guys, I promise you this is not just gonna be a cerebral game from the coaching standpoint and their quarterbacks, but it's just gonna be

all out, just gut check. You know. This is one of those games every once in a while, when I played, you know, trying to be que out there. I like to get a little back pedal going and you know, get smoothed and get loose. But there are some games when you're playing against the Red Skins, you know, playing against guy like Art Monk, you just got to get in his face. It's just you, me and you, just a whole game. You know. I don't have anything to say to you don't have anything to say to me.

We're gonna speak with our play, and this is going to be one of those games. Whatever your style is, you trash talk, you know, if you're quiet, if you're sereb or whatever. But this is gonna be a game that's gonna be a gut check for especially these specialty players as well. I got one minute left in this segment, so I hesitate to bring this up because we don't have enough time. But we can carry it over to the next our final segment here. How important, how important

you are? Short? How just how important is this game for the Cowboys? I mean, obviously from a from a season standpoint, but but even just yeah, it's it's a barrier, it's a thermometer. Right now, this is we're got to see where we are. We have to see where we are right now as a team. I think we can still lose the game and still being in good good about yourself. Yeah, it depends on how you lose that game, and so the numbers them salves wins and losses. That

wouldn't matter this week. We could still have to win out maybe one more loss out to this, but this game will not ruin our playoff chances. I think it's more it'll be as much of a confidence thing as it is something in the standings, right, because even if you play really well and lose, at least you'll feel good about yourself. But if you go down there and flop around, it's like every time, every time we play one of these good teams, this is what we do well.

The other thing, it seems like for any team, but especially since we follow the Cowboys in the seasons where they go to the playoffs, they have a stretch of the season where they where they get on a roll and they accumulate a number of wins in a row. They're playing very well to get there, and obviously it's trite, but you got to continue to improve as the season goes along, and why not against the best in the league. They did that last year. Yeah, I can remember Tom

talking about Landry talking about that all the time. You wanted to streak into the playoffs. You didn't want to limp in, wanted to streak into the playoffs. It's time to streak. Shrinking time did you streak bell in college? We won't get into that as we come back here on talking Cowboys. It's our picks to click in New England. 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 can by purchasing your own stetson. You can look just like how the flag guys do on field at every home game. Stetson hats the official crown of all self respecting Cowboys and your favorite football team. Get yours today in the stadium, pro shop or Stetson dot Com. Already Okay, so are we gonna win? Audibly? Clare? Just okaying is not okay, whether it's cheerleaders or your wireless network. AT and T is America's best wireless network, Best network based on GWS

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eyecare professional by visiting slur usa dot com. See More, Do More. So you're shopping, and that's when you see it. I Old twenty three Doctor Pepper stack from top to bottom as far as the eye can see. The phrase two going to be true comes to mind. Get there. It is a rich, delicious doctor Pepper paradise. Wait did did that can of doctor Pepper just open itself for you? They all are as if to say, so nice to

treat you. And even though it feels weird to talk to we, can you pick one up and say it's so nice to be treated doctor Pepper, So nice to treat you? Back to talking cowboys. Would you believe When I was at the health club this morning, there was a guy with some Jack Black product about that on the elliptical Machineia is Jack Black out? I think it was in the locker room. And Jack Black's got a

pre Black Friday sale going on right now. If you go to the website, they have what's called Jack's Famous Five, and they have a little wheel up there and you hit the button and it'll spin and tell you what you get for free if you purchase sixty five dollars or more, so you get Jack's Famous five. I ordered it by the way, own money, okay. And then they threw in three free products protein booster, skin serum, TurboWash, and all over wash for face, hair and body for

free and free shipping. Go to get Jack Black dot com. All right, very good, I use hot water. Here you go. All right, Everson asked me. I'm this week I've been wearing this cap. It's not the Team Jack Black, but it is Team Jack okay, and this is for the Team Jack Foundation. And as you all know, one of my favorite players in the league happens to be a New England Patriot. That's where my Rex Burkhead and Rex became friends when he was at the University of Nebraska

with Jack Hoffman. Jack Hoffman had brain cancer. Team Jack. The Team Jack Foundation funds research for pediatric brain cancer research. And um, they've they've raised all sorts of money. It was the ESPN play of the Year when at the Nebraska spring game they handed the football to Jack. This is now going back six or seven years ago, and he ran for a touchdown in front of seventy five thousand people at their spring game at Nebraska. Whatever. And anyway,

they visited the White House. I mean they became fast friends. Brex does a um a charity event for Jack, who's now I guess he's around he's probably a teenager by now. Um. And so anyway, this week I decided I'm going to wear my Team Jack hat to support the Team Jack Foundation since we're playing The Parents of Love. Yes I heard, I heard you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad y'all did, because I would have been gone on and on. We wouldn't have enough time. If this is not he'd still be playing.

But this is not Rex's week. This is the Cowboys week. Right. As we make our picks, who wants to go first, our pick, the click and our pick for the game. All right, I'm a person going I'm gonna go first. And I know this is wishful thinking, but I am looking forward to can I just put my my, my cornerback duo and as one one pick. I think you can do whatever you want to. I think our cornerbacks are gonna do well. I look for one of them

to get an interception. It's just shut me up for once this year about talking about how they can't play. I look for the Cowboys to win. I really do. I picked the Cowboys to win every week. So you know, whenever you ask me this at the end of the week, I'm gonna say Cowboys. Uh, cornerbacks and Cowboys. That's good. It's just a quarterback that has the best chance to get a pick. I wanted to say Biban Jones because

it's guy is so athletic. But you know when you make a Pro Bowl with no picks in Novai, Yeah, no movas him. But I think I think a Woozier. Well we'll finally uh turn around and look for the ball. All right, there it is there. It is number twenty four. I'm gonna go stick with defense and go with Sean Lee. And we talked about him earlier, we know now exactly he's got to have a big role in this game.

The two games where vander esh was limited or inactive against Philly in New York, Sean had to think twenty three tackles and was all over the field. And given this matchup, he's got to show up big in this game too. So got my on number fifty this week. Good choice I will take Did you have a pick? Did you pick the game? Did I picked the game? Yeah? Wow, this is this is stuff I've been leaning I've been

leaning to. I'll go with Dallas because I think they every time we think they can't win a game, or there's Philly before the buy, or the Saints last year, they get they get like a signature win. I'll take the Cowboys. Okay, do you have a score? Whatever Mickey picks is for whatever, I think it's fine. I will

take number twenty one Zekiel Elliott. He is gonna get past that line of scrimmage because they don't have very big defensive lineman playing, and once he gets in the open field, you're gonna see the guy from Ohio State. I will pick the Cowboys to win twenty three twenty twenty three, twenty Cowboys. That's good, and I'm going with Michael Bennett as my pick to click this week. He's going to get in the face of one Tom Brady as we are about out of time here on Talking Cowboys,

and we will talk at you again next week. Oh, I forgot to make my pick. Oh oh, we ran out of time Talking Cowboys. Sorry,