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This he's Talking Cowboys Straining live from the Dallas Cowboys World Course at the Star in Frisco. And now your hosts Isaiah Standback, Nick Harris, John Mashoda, and Kyle.
Yeomans Cowboys Nation, let's talk about it.
Welcome into Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, the official coffee of the Dallas Cowboys. Here with Isaiah Standback, John Mashoda Chris Beam in the back. I'm Nick Harris. No Kyle Yeomans today. He is off doing big announcer stuff today, So Kyle, but uh yeah, so we're we're He left us here to sit here and talk about it with you guys. The therapy session. I don't think he could sit through.
It's so weird.
Huh yeah. Yeah, it's tough.
Forty eight hours, I guess, give or take thirty six maybe. Oh like yeah, it's it's it's it's done. It happened very fast, Dallas Cowboys getting blown out, and I don't I don't think there's a safer way to put it. Even if they were able to get that final touchdown in two point conversion to make it an eight point loss.
That's still a blowout.
Dug themselves a twenty seven to nothing hole, couldn't bounce back from it, and the Green Bay Packers are moving on to the divisional round. And now the Cowboys have a lot of questions to answer this week and into the offseason. Guys, I just kind of want to get your initial thoughts on the game, and John will start with you.
Just what happened?
Yeah, I mean I thought that they're well every game. I think that there's four possible scenarios. You know, the Cowboys can either win close, win big, lose close, lose big. Losing big was something I never even considered happening. That is that I never even thought that was not against his team, not I mean nine win Packers team. You could it's the worst team that made the playoffs this year.
You're at hell home, and when that Cowboys game ended, we didn't know what would happen, you know, yesterday, and it held true. Every other wildcard team that played at home won their game.
That is a huge advantage in the.
Wildcard round because you're usually playing a team that isn't the same level as you, And so it's the same thing as it was two years ago when the Cowboys hosted the Niners. They were the only team to lose at home in the wildcard round. That's not a good sign. And my initial thoughts are the same as they are
right now. I just cannot believe the way that first half went for it to snowball the way it did, to get down twenty seven to nothing late in the first half, get be down thirty two in the fourth. I mean, I just that's unfathomable from a team that the offense is healthy. Yeah, you were missing some defensive players, but there is no excuse to have played that poorly. Honestly, I don't think there's an excuse for them to play that poorly against any team forty nine, Ers, Baltimore, whatever.
And then the flip side is I always try and look at things from the other team's perspective. I don't think there's a team in the NFL Packers players, Packers fans, whoever, analysts would have ever thought that they would be up twenty seven to nothing late in the first half. Carolina Panthers, whoever you want to put them at at their place in Lambeau and on the frozen tundra. They wouldn't have believed that they would have been up twenty seven to
nothing against anyone for it just snowball like that. And then the last thing I'll just say before you guys go on, couldn't believe that how all facets of the game were terrible, Like there was nothing you could hang your hat on, like maybe maybe Jake Ferguson, maybe Michael Gallup, Like I mean.
We're really Gallup saved his job.
We're really splitting hairs over here.
So that was the if you painted that picture and you told somebody before the game that that was going to happen, One, you could have made a ton of money betting on it. But two, I don't think anybody Packer fan, Cowboy fan, any analyst would have believed that was possible. Maybe a close loss, losing late, but not that type of performance.
Well, Nick, I don't know, I don't know what the heck happened. I don't I didn't recognize that team, that entire team. There might have been aspects or players in that game that I'm might have been you know what, we've seen that guy before. But as an entire team. I was disappointed, and that's the only word that I can utilize in that associates with what we saw on Sunday afternoon is peer disappointment, mainly because they didn't fight. And there's gonna be games where it's just not going
your way. There's gonna be games where god, a man, the execution's just not there, or man, we're just barely off on this.
You know, maybe there's games where you.
Get out coached, but for all those things to be true and you not fight to a peer to not fight, let's put it that way, right.
Well, well, I'm real quick on that.
Did you see any similarities from that, because I did a little bit so when you said that, I feel the exact same way, and it kind of reminded me of San Francisco, Arizona Buffalo, like where you're watching the game and it was like, Hey, I'm only gonna let you watch the first quarter.
And then you have to leave. That's really all you needed to see.
Yeah, I could have rubbed my to go off the first quarter.
Yeah, the first quarter was happening, and as it was taking place, I was like, Yeah, this is a rough start, but they'll be okay. That was my genuine feeling. I'm like, yeah, there's they'll be okay.
I mean, they've won sixteen in a row at home, you'd think that.
But even aside from that, I'm like, personnel wise, you're personnel wise, you're better than they are on paper. The bad thing about it is you got to still show up and improve it, and they just didn't show up improve it. They literally allow somebody to walk in their house, smack them, their wives and their kids. That person walked
away before walking out of the door. They turn around and say, you got something to say, and then smack their dogs and then it smacked the dog and walked out, slammed the door shut, and Dallas said nothing.
And that's how I felt then. That's how I feel now, you.
Feel any better?
I was going, you know, any better today than you did after it, because I think there's a state of shock when it's going on, because you know, like like Jerry, you could tell after the game, what's the kind of like sleep on it before he makes any big decisions. I'm just kind of like, when I woke up the next morning, I'm like, that's worse than even when I was watching it, thinking about.
It, you know what, you know what, No, I don't feel any better to answer your question. The thing that's really making me, I don't want to say sick to my stomach, but like this uneasy feeling, I genuinely genuinely feel bad for mister Jones. Like I genuinely feel bad for mister Jones because we're not best buds. I'm not his best friend. I don't know. I'm in, you know, all the way in and all the way out. I'm grateful that he drafted me and things of that nature.
See him around the way from time to time. But over the years, from the time that I was drafted to now right, I've had my eyes on the Cowboys. I've never seen him hurt. And I feel like he was genuinely hurt after that game, or hurt by the results of that game. There's a certain look that people have in their eyes. There's disappointment, there's frustration, there's anger. He was hurt, man like like I felt like I
felt it. You know, there there was a presence that he has about it, there's an amians that he has about him, and it was it was pain.
It was genuine pain.
And well, I'll just speak on behalf of everybody outside of the studio. Then don't you give him any responsibility being also the general manager of the team.
You know what, So I know a lot of people are going to do that right, and as a general manager, you do everything that you can. You know, my idea of a general manager doing all they can is doing a great job managing the salary cap, doing a great job putting as much talent as you can underneath the salary cap, and putting a coaching staff in position that is as successful as possible with the talent that you have.
That's your job as a general manager. Your job's not to go out there and play your jobs, not to play at all.
Yeah.
After the game, Jerry was kind of took responsibility. He said, I know where the responsibility starts, and then it's talking about himself.
I've got that real clear.
And I know that the point is this that I'm disappointed for everybody.
He was really apologetic to the fans after the game.
I think that was the biggest thing that he wanted to get across, and he knew that there was a really good opportunity for this team to be able to have two games at home and instead on Sunday at and T stadiums can be very empty and not a soul's going to be in there.
It is interesting to say about the apology because I felt like last year in San Francisco he talked because of that exact same thing too, And anybody that wants can just put that inside and be like, oh, you know, he just wants publicity. He has never seen a microphone or camera. He doesn't love And that's fine that you can factor that in. But also, I mean I watch
all these games. I just I don't see anybody else's you know, GM or owner standing outside, you know, feeling like they have to tell the fan base they're not the only ones they're gonna be disappointed after this. But it is interesting how like you point that out that I really truly feel like he has to say something to the fan, especially when it's such an ugly, disappointing, unexpected end of the season like that.
Yeah, And the biggest questions that were asked to Jerry Jones post game was you know, are there changes that you have to make?
Now?
This is three seasons in a.
Row, twelve wins at twelve and five and being bounced early in the playoffs earlier than you probably should have. I think the only argument you can maybe maybe make was last season. But even the way that one went down, you felt like you should have won that game, he said. I haven't reflected at all on anything about the coaching or any of that. I'm amazed that we were sitting here without another game this upcoming weekend. I don't have any comments or questions or answers for how and why
we didn't do what we wanted tonight. What I'm zeroed in on is the fact that I thought we were in a position to advance this thing in the playoffs and maybe get as far as our dreams might take us.
We didn't do it.
I didn't have I don't have any thoughts on the reasons why, or anything to do with the coaching or players. It kind of sounded like he was gonna take some time this week to think about some things. And it's it's hard to go into Oxnard in July and sell the same product.
Oh and just run it back. Yeah, you can't do that, especially after what you just read. I can't see how that.
Really hard going twelve and five three straight seasons, Because let's say you have regular season success next year, Let's say you go fourteen and three.
Yeah right, Oh, I know I've been thinking about.
No, there's gonna be zero confidence from the fan base. It's gonna be okay. Well, let's let's see next week talking about the playoffs.
I just I gotta throw something in here. I know some people aren't gonna like this, but you know, I've seen I've seen the posts. I've seen people talk about how well we maybe you just shouldn't go to the games. Show them by not going to the games. Well, people are going to go to the games. I mean, it's an event. There's only eight home games. But I will say, but Jerry will see and he'll he'll he'll be very aware of you run it back like that. I'll tell
you what where you will see the difference. You ain't gonna see the T shirts being sold.
You're not gonna see the hoodies, the hats, the gear.
There's gonna be other things that the cowboys are involved in that you'll see people just be like, yeah, I'm good right now, man, you.
Gotta do something.
So that's why, in knowing how he is as a businessman, I think he knows exactly what you're saying like, there's no way I can just run it back and say no, let's just try and do this again. Not after an ending like that, you win the first two losing, Sam fran I know to be ugly. I understand people be like, third straight season the Niners ended it. It's the least NFC championship game. You might be able to do something there this, I don't see how you can run it back.
Yeah, with all the pieces that are in place, main pieces, so we could talk about coaching staff, Dak Prescott, defensive stars, Michael Parsons, whatever, you have the same main pieces in place going into next season, you would probably have less confidence with that team being fourteen and three going into the playoffs if as compared to if you make a big splash in the offseason, whether it be a coaching or a big free agent edition or a splash draft
and going to the playoffs eleven and six, there's probably more confidence in that eleven and sixteen that has something different than this fourteen and three team that has gone to the playoffs three years in a row and has fallen short of expectations.
That's just me thinking, yeah, I hear you, guys, thinking, and I know, obviously I've been watching all the shows and reading all the articles and getting everybody responsive.
Of course, what would you like about it?
Human behavior right now, the human behavior cycle, just speaking in regards what I was just mentioning about how I believe that mister Jones was hurt.
After hurt would comes, what happens? What's the next year? Nah anger? Right? Scorched earth?
And anybody who knows the history of mister Jones when he's pissed off, don't even make eye contact in the hallway, right if don't sneeze, don't yawn, don't anything. I think he's about to go scorched earth. And I'm not sure what that looks like. I'm not sure what that looks like. And I'm not sure how he can how he can detach personally now his surrounding support system, Will McLay, you know, Stephen Jones.
And everybody else that has a part in.
Speaking some wisdom in his ear or even amongst the wisdom that he already has himself, is going to have a big role because emotionally, he's going to have to try to hone himself in because of the hurt, because of the pain because of the embarrassment, because of the repeated, repeated offenses of the playoffs, coming short in the playoffs, because of the timeline that he feels like he's up agains.
He's gonna have to.
Try to bring in as much rationale as possible and is for everybody, and I'm sure we'll hit on this every there's a lot of people saying, you.
Know, just just get rid of everything. I'm not so sure.
I don't think blowing up.
No, I don't think so.
I don't think blowing it up to answer, And I honestly don't think that they're people aren'tnna agree with this. I don't feel as if there needs to be a lot of change inside the building. I truly don't agree. I think that the area that your organization has been struggling with consistently not the regular season.
It's the playoffs.
And I know there's a head coach out there that's on TV right now interviewing for coaches.
He's don't bring don't look to bring in double B. This is my suggestion.
If I'm running things around here, I am trying to pitch Bill Belichick to come in as a as a consultant.
Okay, I can listen to you on that.
The problem with and I he is the odds on favorite if they were going in another direction to be the coach by no, but be that. But my thing with Bill Belichick is I wonder how relatable he is now to today's players, just like the way that his style is, especially as you watch every branch from his tree go somewhere else and be an epic failure. There's part of you that's got to sit back and go, hey man, you're a legend. Statues, all of that, arguably
the greatest ever. I don't know how like I could see him coming in here trying to do it his way, you know, iron fist all that stuff, and it being like, oh my god.
Yeah. That's why. That's why I don't say coach.
Yeah, but I say as a consultant, because name one person that's better prepared for playoffs.
Yeah.
But I don't think he would take that over. I don't think he would take it over head coaching.
Up.
He's going to get a head coaching job.
I hear you.
But I'm just saying this is just a suggestion of money.
May I I was in a position I'm pitching him to come in as a consult I'm not sure that he wants to be a head coach again.
I'm not it's a really good chances of the Atlanta Falthons.
I think there's a possibility, but I'm not sure that he really wants to be a head coach again. Right, So there's a lot of responsibility. You gotta build a culture, you gotta build it up. It takes years, right, and he's up against a clock as well.
But I feel them as a consultant is any undermining the head coach, because the head coach is just always like allow Bills over there.
This listen up.
Where have you proven to me as of late that you're coming up short on this coaching stwn?
Not the regular season, it's the playoffs.
Yeah, So I'm gonna bring somebody else in who has a different perspective, who has a lot more success and that department, right, and I'm gonna lean on him, and I want you to lean on him in terms of preparation, in terms of analyzing yourself, right, in terms of not being repetitive in some of the things that you're doing offensively, defensively. Whatever it might have been that people feel like we were doing the same type of things and scouting yourself.
That's where I'm leaning on. I think that would be my answer to it right now. Obviously I'm not getting paid to do this, okay, but I believe that they don't need to blow up as much as people think, because I think I don't believe that Cowboys Nation is willing to go through the pain of rebuilding and going through the pain of trying to send back to even where you are today.
Well, the other part of it is they have too many key young pieces that you would be foolish to just go, yeah, I know, young, good player, get them out here.
We got to start over.
I don't want a single player in this roster was here the last year that you can't do that. That doesn't make any sense that that would be foolish to do that. I will say one thing I've thought about a lot recently is just the whole idea of like how come they keep falling short in the playoffs? And I'm not saying this is the reason, but I do believe it's
a factor. And maybe it's only one percent, but I wonder if the star has gotten so big that the pressure in the playoffs is too much for these guys nowadays. I mean the social media, the constant TV attention. You know, when the Cowboys lose, it's a bigger deal than when most teams win. Last year San Francisco game was an eye opener for me with that, it was it was very fascinating to watch the whole I don't understand why all nationally there isn't all this talk about, man, this
is the Niners year. Whatever it was that was like maybe ten percent, ninety percent was a Cowboys choke again, blah blah blah whatever. Like I wonder if today's player who hears every little thing, I wonder if the pressure of the playoffs has become so much that soon as something goes wrong, it is it just it's they tense up or whatever. And the only way that could change is, to your point, would be with at the leadership standpoint.
I know a lot of people will talk on any new general manager all that that's not going to change, But there's just something about them going into these games, especially these these last two playoff games at home, where you're just like, man, they don't even look like if you took the jerseys off them and just you would look like that's not even a team that belongs in the NFL.
It's been stunning.
I might disagree with you here, Isaiah.
I do not believe Bill Belichick is looking for anything other than a head coaching or GM uppert and and GM opportunity.
He wants full control. I'd be shocked if he doesn't end up.
With I think he wants a record. I think he wants a head coaching.
Fifteen wins away from the head coaching wins record.
He's he's going to go be a coach somewhere, and I don't feel like that would be here, even if Jerry Jones decides to move.
On for Mike McCarthy.
Now playing it to your point, though, there's a guy who used to coach up in Seattle not too long ago who might fit more of the bill you're looking for. The bill you're looking for to come in as as an analyst maybe or as an advisor building.
I don't know if they did, how would you feel about it?
And he's in his press conference whenever he was let go, he was kind of firing an ownership a little bit. It would not surprise me if he ends up somewhere else. If if the right opportunity were to present itself. But that's a guy who's won at every level he's been at. I think that would be a little bit more interesting there, and who knows, that might even be a candidate if if Jerry Jones decides to move on from Mike McCarthy
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Welcome back into Dear Doctor, the show where I answered life's questions with an ice cold can of Dr Pepper. Sheila, let's hear from my next caller, would you there?
Doctor?
My friend supported me during a tough time.
But what's the right gift that says thanks for being the soldier.
To cry out?
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To Talking Cowboys.
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John, did you get him in this morning?
I did not. I didn't get anything in.
This Morningyah me neither. All right, we're not gonna ask anybody else.
I sure did. Man, we have our first caller on the line. Do do we be already?
Yes?
We do?
Okay, it's uh is it Kyle and Indianapolis? Is that is? That? Is that?
Who it is?
Kyle and Indianapolis? And I just got my Quaker oats in. I do idea, I got you brow nice. It was the hotel lobby. Is what got it done this morning? For sure?
Uh, Kyle, go ahead and tell us what you're up there for and then kind of give us your thoughts on this. This uh, just everything that's happened in the last forty eight hours too.
Yeah, this is this was a pre scheduled thing. So it's not like I just picked up the bags and ran ason. Is what happened on Sunday happening? But yeah, yeah, calling the Purdue at Indiana men's basketball game tonight for Compass Radio Network, so national radio network. So if you if you have anything going on tonight and you're running around, you can listen to it, or you could stop down and I'll tweet out a link and I'll put it on Instagram here in a little while as well.
But moved on to basketball season fast.
Yeah, that it didn't last long, right, Yeah, excited about the game, but pretty pretty bummed out still about the Cowboys. And I tweeted this out yesterday, but it feels like a bad dream every time that you you kind of wake up and you look back at what happened, just because of the expectation that was there and then the
letdown that was there as well. I think that was what hurt the most is not only did you get blown out, and I watched the beginning of the show and you, I mean neviled it right on the head. Even if they go and score and make it a one possession game, that was a blowout loss to Green Bay. They controlled you in every aspect of the game, and they executed their game plan and you were expected to do that. You were at home. You're the only home team in the wild Card Round to lose a game
after you had won sixteen straight at home. So it's frustrating, it really is. And I don't blame Cowboys Nation for remaining frustrated even after forty eight hours and seeing the Eagles fall on Monday Night football. I just it was a disappointment across the board. And I don't think you could point it in one specific direction. But if you got to point it in one direction, it may just go right back to your head coach. And that's unfortunate because he has had a ton of success. He's won
a lot of games in the regular season. But when you're one and three in the playoffs, two at home in the playoffs, it's ultimately, I think, going to reflect on what you do in terms of getting those guys ready.
Yeah.
I think that's certainly a solid point there. And there's a lot of questions that are going to have to be answered. Again I said in a previous segment, that's going to be have to be answered this week, it's gonna have to be answered in the rest of the offseason. If you're Jerry Jones right now, what are you mulling over? And I don't think there's a correct or wrong answer to that question. I think there's a lot of things
that you look at. There's different possibilities. H Kyle lasting here, what is one big offseason change that would give you confidence going into Hawk start next year?
Uh Man, that's tough. I think it would. I think it would need to be multiple changes, and maybe not even that head coach, but just across the board, and because even if you make a change at head coach, my thought is, who do you go get. I mean, I know the name Bill Belicheck is out there. I know Mike Rabel's out there. Pete Carroll technically is not a head coach anymore, but he's in a position that I think he's happy in. What excites me is is
maybe just finding better players. I don't know. It really is one of those where it does. It's not an easy answer, and I think this is the most pivotal Cowboys offseason that we've had in a long time. Because you can't sit there and do nothing. That's my thing is. You can't just run it back and go back into it and say, hey, let's let's try and put the same roster on the table that just went twelve and five and lost in the wild card round and just
hope it goes better next time. You can't do that. Sure, you can do yourself a favor by maybe getting ahead and signing the cornerstone pieces of your franchise that are coming up closer to the contract time, like a CD Lamb or a Micah Parsons or whoever. But don't don't just sign contracts to sign contracts, and don't just make changes to make changes. I want to see a considerable plan moving forward. That's my number one concern and something
that I want to see at least this offseason. You may have to make some moves up top, but just make sure that you have a plan in doing so.
Yeah, I'm with you, Kyle, appreciate you hopping on man. Good luck with the call tonight. Stay safe, safe travels back so we can be back on the show here with you. I don't even know when the next show would be, but whenever the next show would be to have you back, man.
Yeah, I appreciate you, guys. I'll have fun and keep the therapy session going, gentle.
Hey, hey, get a picture with Zach Edie.
Okay, I'll send it to you.
How tall are you?
I'm six foot three and he's like a solid seven.
Yeah.
I'm watching some of his highlights right now.
Yeah, that'll be great and fine, man, Thanks guys, appreciate it.
There's a question here on the text line from the two one nine This is It's not a question, it's more of a statement and it kind of goes into your point John of talking about the pressure of playing in the playing in the playoffs for the Dallas Cowboys. He said, if the pressure is too much, send them to the Yankees organization. They'll teach them how to deal with high expectations. Twenty eight World Series titles, I guess it is for the Yankees, the last one.
Uh yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while, I guess, I guess.
When social media really started taking off.
That's that's a valid point as well. That's a valid point as well. A couple of really good questions in here as well. I kind of dive through them, but we're gonna go to our second caller technically, but our first fan caller, Josh in North Carolina.
Josh, what's on your mind?
How are we doing?
Gentlemen?
Doing well?
Good?
Good, long time every day listener with you guys. You guys are awesome. What a debacle of epic proportions that.
That game was.
For sure, I know you guys are going to be honest with the fans, with the team, with everybody, and I appreciate your honesty. So I've got two questions for you guys, and then I'll hang up and let you guys discuss me. If if I repeat myself, I apologize if you've already answered these questions. The first one is, you know I've asked this before and throughout the year, and Isaiah, you could probably answer this better than most. What was the game plan for the offense of the defense?
It looked like we were just lost out there, players missing assignment, not knowing what routes to run. It just looked like a gomb to be honest, that's my first question, what was the game plan? And the second question is.
Going forward?
Honestly, is this team equipped to make a deeper run than just the divisional round like last year? I mean, I just feel like we set ourselves up for failure. We have all this talent and we can't get over the hump, and so we need to have some honest conversations. Is this team ready to take the next leap? I appreciate you guys have a great day.
It's one thing I just want to say before you guys ad I just think it's the other thing that factors in on the whole blowing of the team. To be to win twelve games each of the last three years in the regular season. That's hard in any any era, But It's particularly hard right now because of the parody the way your schedule changes every year. If you're good the year before, you're getting a tougher schedule. The year after you if you're good again, you're getting a tougher schedule.
They so I get annoyed by people. I just scoff at that, like nobody cares. It's it's really tough to do in today's NFL to run that back. You so to sit there and just say, oh, hey, let's just blow this thing up. There's a part of me that could see that a little bit when I'm watching an Eagles game yesterday, because there's some older players and you're just kind of like, hey, you need to shake some I just look at where this team's at right now and just blowing it up on the field. That just
doesn't that doesn't sound like a wise decision. If you think that's the best decision right now, go ahead and sleep on it for a couple more days, because I think when you look back on it, you're going to think that that's not the answer.
You can do a lot more harm than good.
I think that there's tweaks here and there that you can make that can get you to that next level.
But yeah, what did you think on the game plan?
Yeah, I totally agree with you on that in regards to a game plan. Thanks for calleg Josh Offensively. Offensively, you wanted to try to play keep a w but there was a team that got to the scoreboard first, Green Bay disrupted what your initial game plan was. You went out there, you tried to run the ball and you couldn't do so they were not running the ball effectively ended up putting on their first series obviously, so then you're right smack dab in trouble. You're playing from
behind passing game. I hate to say this word, but it was predictable. It was predictable, and we've talked about it. We talked about it earlier in the season. How with the West Coast offense, you could run the same place, but you have to run it from different formations, different personnel group, has different motions. You have to move it around to make it look and appear different than what it actually is, and there wasn't a lot of that
in this game. So because of that stagnant look appearance, it was predictable.
From the defense.
There's miscommunication between DAK and CD I felt as if the routes that CD running were accurate routes. I felt like Dak was DAK went back to last year Dak, and I don't want to place this on one person, but I felt the frustration for CD. The ball placement of Dak was terrible based upon the routes that CD was running, based upon where the passing lanes were, based upon where the gaps and the defense were, Dak was
not on even when CD was open Dak. I mean CD's breaking out, Dak's throwing inside, you know, away from his momentum and high and things of that nature. So he wasn't putting the ball in position for guys to be able to do anything with it. Nevertheless, even catch it. He went back to not reading coverages. Unfortunately, they were not running complicated coverages. They were playing very soft defense. Majority of the time. They were playing Cover four or
Cover three. Every so often they'll sprinking into a man, but they were playing ben but don't break defense, Like, hey, you're not beating us over the top. We know you don't want to work your way down the field.
Especially with twenty seven to nothing lead.
Absolutely absolutely, so they did that, and they really screwed around with DAK with those safeties. That's something that's causing problems in the past, pre snap reed to post snap reed and not making the adjustment. I mean there was times where I was literally explaining it to some of our one of our staff members here breaking down coverages and helping them understand where the holes and the coverages are.
And I'm like, okay, here's the pre snap Reid. We're actually watching the game.
Literally, I'm drawing stuff up with figurines and everything else on the table, and I'm like, this is cover two. Now it might be covered four of this. That's that's pre snap. Now let's see what happens postnapp. As soon as the ball snap, Okay, here comes to safety is cover three? As soon as I said cover three, Pick six didn't see it. He was throwing it as if it was still cover four, but had went to cover three.
So there was a man there that normally wouldn't be there and cover four, but he was there in cover three. But you have to see that. So there was things that DAK reverted back to. That was the offensive all right, So you got behind, couldn't run the ball to sustain drives and then you're passing game was crap. Defensively, I was just telling this John in the break, you had to become a defense that you haven't been all year.
And as many people that are coming at dan Quinn right now, First of all, yes, he had a bad game calling, calling the game.
At the end of the day, he can't play for his guys.
You you expect your guys, the best pass rush in the game to get home.
They didn't get home.
You expect them to be able to stop the run and ask them to stop the run versus a prey pretty simplistic zone running scheme. They didn't really do that at all. Secondary wise, you couldn't play the type of defense that you wanted to play that you're accustomed to playing. You're accustomed to playing man to man defense, you know, press, man, off man, whatever is man that Dallas was number one in the league this year playing man and man coverage
and you couldn't do so. I think I might have mentioned it last week on the show after gilmour injury. I said, it's going to be very interesting to see how he approaches his game because he cannot.
Be the same player that he was.
I don't want to I didn't want to project that onto him, but I was saying based upon my personal experience with that injury, which we perceived it to be.
I perceived it to be the same injury I had sustained three years in a row.
I knew that he was not going to physically be able to play man to man defense. And what do we see a lot of Cover three and it's come out that he's torres later, I knew it, Yep, I gotta have surgeries. I can't say that on the air because I'm not the guy's back there looking at his MRI. But I played with that two years in a row, so I knew he was being a dog. I knew he was playing through pain. I knew that he was gonna get, you know, all kinds of medicine and braces
and all that stuff, and he was gonna play. But what did I say, He's not gonna be the same guy, and he was unable to play man to man press and play physical. Playing man to man defense requires you to be physical, whether you're playing man to man press at the line of scrimmage or whether you're playing five
yards off. At some point in time, I gotta get my hands on your neck, and if I have a jacked up shoulder, I can't right be hesitant and I'm gonna be second guess anything that I naturally would do. So what do you do to take some of that stress off of your players? Let's go to the zone. Well, you haven't been playing a ton of zone, so now what happens? So now what happens is zone. I talked about this too, right, and you guys could look at
the film room. I said, these guys run a lot of three by one sets, and what a three by one sets do when you try to play zone?
They flood you.
It's very difficult in terms of communication, in terms of who has who responsibilities. That guy's going over there. Okay, we're only three guys that are responsible for going deep. What happens when we got four guys going deep?
Right? Now, what happens?
You drop coverages? And that's exactly what happened. You saw miscommunication. You saw guys that are booty button that can open, and it's unfortunate. And I felt for Dan quick because I'm like, there's nothing else he could do. There's nothing else he can do. He's calling what he can call based upon what his personnel allows for him to call and they're not executing.
So you're telling me A random play in Washington during a blowout in week eighteen in which Stefan Gilmour entered his shoulder wrote the end for the Dallas Cowboys in it.
Changed the game player.
Yeah, I don't know how, And that totally makes tons of sense for why there were uncharacteristic type of openings and on the back end of that defense and some of the touchdowns they gave up and things like that, and that sucks. But injuries happen, but not really on the offense. He had the whole crew there at home too.
It shouldn't be any communicating communication issues. You're at home, so you can give up those points, but you should be scoring them right back against that it was the Green Bay Packers, and honestly, I want to take the Packers out of it because the way the Cowboys played, it really didn't matter who the other team was.
Could have played a seven on seven, Yeah, it would have been the same result. It was that bad in terms of communication.
I'm fascinated to watch this Packers Niners game because I think it could be like real ugly.
Yeah, when we come back out of our second break, we'll touch on our final caller, and then we'll also touch on the wrapping this up. As the Cowboys season is over, we look forward to the offseason.
The In the final segment you're on Talking.
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To Talking Cowboys.
Welcome back into Talking Cowboys.
This segment is brought to you by Invisi li Ning, the official Smile of the Dallas Cowboys.
We're gonna see this off season. We're gonna get in. I'm gonna get this in vision line going.
Are you now?
Yeah, I'm thinking about doing it too.
Off season done.
We're gonna give you a discount Talking Cowboys discount.
I don't know. Maybe they might give me a crooked smile discount. We'll see.
We're gonna go to our final caller, Brian in Kansas City.
Brian, what's on your mind?
Good morning, gentlemen.
How you doing.
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Man. I can't believe Kyle Abandon that time I read.
A private jit and took off to Indiana and beyond people.
I'm just telling you, and I had a question for him. I wanted to know who what who they picked out for the Draft show this year, and now I'm mad that he's not there to answer.
Well, I can kind of answer that for you with the Raft show will start this week. I don't know if I have the right to say who's going to be on the show, but it's, uh, look look for tomorrow, look for tomorrow.
After that, I appreciate it. Uh So, you know, you guys talked a little bit about the defense, and I wondered too why the defense looked so different than what we've seen most of the year. And you know, not being able to jam people at the line of scrimmage makes sense for maybe why they couldn't play their their regular coverages and it it. You know, maybe this has an impact on the question I was going to ask too.
But.
So and I will say before I ask the question, I will say there's nobody out there that excites me as a coach right now, including Belichick. I agree that Belichick I think is I think his days are passed in terms of modern players, and he hasn't been a good coach for the for the Patriots for the last few years either. You know, they had an epic failure this year. Ye. So, but Uh, the actually have two questions, one who when going into the draft, what positions do
you guys want to see upgraded? And then the other question I had was about Quinn. But you know, we kind of just said, well, maybe he just wasn't capable of playing the defense he's used to. But he's now associated with two epics postseason failures. What does that do to his stock for this offseason? And I'll hang up and listen to y'all's answer. Have a great day.
Thank you, Thank you so much, Brian isaam.
So in terms of who, what position group I would like to see addressed in the off season, it's the same as it was last year. His offensive line last year the first first round Seger, I want an office line. I was myself, Nay, everybody was beating the dog on table for it.
Nate was yesterday.
Yeah, it's been the same. We've been saying the same thing for a while. Now needs to be addressed. You shouldn't have taken you having to sit Tyran Smith out, you know, to realize that, oh we might need to address this. So that's something that I hopefully they will address with a high pick.
Higher pick. In terms of Dan Quinn, was that the next question?
Yeah, yeah, dan Quinn as a he took Atlanta Falcons organization that was pretty much crap, took them all the way to the super Bowl again, had an epic meltdown at the super Bowl.
Again. Coaches can't do everything.
I'm not That doesn't alleviate them from the responsibility. But I'm sure that game haunts him more than anything. And it's a heck of an example to have. And it has no relation to this game, and I would tell you if it did. I love DQ, that's my dude, but I hold him accountable just like I hold anybody else accountable.
This game.
Was a very frustrating game for him, not only from the standpoint of what he was able to call because of the capabilities of his players, but also because of the execution.
Damn yeah, go ahead.
This kind of leads into a text we got from the nine oh one. You need real depth in the middle of your defensive core linebacker in safety. That's what's killed you. Did you see how they bullied us? And that's a That's the thing we've talked about all season is under size. When they play against teams that are so physical that you see how how different it is.
And I mentioned this yesterday on kind of the pop Up Show that we had One thing that I did not factor in last week is how good that Packer's offensive line is. And I knew it was good. I knew it was solid. I knew they were physical. I knew they could bully around.
They're not going to have, you know, one guy that's going to be the maler, but they're going to.
Have the five unit.
Really yeah, it's a it's a unit that works really well together. And they got into that second level and they were doing some dirty work to the mont Clark and Marquise Bell, Malie Cook or Jyron Curse everybody in the middle of that defensive core.
I think you need size, and the.
First round probably not, but the second, third round you got to start addressing the size.
Size.
Size is one thing more for me is more attitude. For me, it's more a definitely you need size. Definitely you need size. But if you put a now I was about the say a name. Oh, I've known some very large linebackers along the way that wire workout warriors that were softest tissue paper. So size is one aspect, but you gotta have some you gotta have a dog. You gotta have some dogs man at the linebacker at this second level, but you also have to keep guys
off of the linebackers. So like it goes to the interior DEFENSI alignment and you have to get some big fellas.
I mean you have to. I believe that as much as you want.
To be a high speed, pass rushing type defense, I think you need to on first and second down have the option to put some some big boys up there, to put some big stakes up front to be able to discourage the run. So in passing situations now you can bring your your your goons in and go back and hunt the quarterback. But I don't think that you should be asking them to play that the entire game.
When it goes back to the draft question, I will say, so the Cowboys are locked into the twenty fourth pick. They've drafted at twenty four three times in the team's history. They took Tyler Smith, des Bryant, and Calvin Hill, so they've done well at twenty four. And I completely agree. I think it's got to be an offensive tackle. Getting this offensive line back to being one of the team's strengths, getting the running game going helps everything else. We knew
that was an issue this entire season. So for me, first round, if you're asking me, I'm saying, twenty fourth pick, offensive lineman, probably offensive tackle.
Yeah, it's a really deep tackle class too, so there's gonna be an opportunity to get a high value guy. I think at that twenty four spot that you know in previous years would probably go a little bit.
Higher than that.
And they've been great draft an offensive lineman in the first round.
So yeah, absolutely, I think that's probably where it starts in the first round for me. I think you move into Day two, you really got to start addressing defensive defensive size for me. I know it's kind of an attitude thing as well. But and you get Overshown back next year, you get Trevon Diggs back next year. We'll see what happens with Layton Van Dersh as well. Hoping for the best for him. But there's still things that you can help out with the defensive side of the ball.
Last thing I want to touch on before we get out of here. If Jerry Jones is to move on from Mike McCarthy, this is just kind of, you know, my thinking here defensive head coach. You know, haven't had a defensive head coaching here since Wade Phillips. Correct bringing a defensive guy because this team is a defensive team. You look at Michael Parsons, you look at Trayvon Diggs, those are the young core pieces. Yeah, you can look at Ceedee Lamb and Dak Prescott having the season they
just had. Bringing a coordinator that can work with those guys and have solid play calling opportunities and be able to put them in positions. A defensive head coach that has built around a defensive staff. I think that's what could make this team one.
The interesting thing about that, though, is so you see like a lot of names people want to throw a lot.
I don't see the Cowboys if they.
Were going another direction to go to a first time head coach. So you can like that Ben Jonson's and Bobby Slowick, I just don't see that that being something here that Jerry would want to do. He's gonna want somebody that's got previous head coaching experience. And so when you say that for a defensive coach, I mean obviously people say like Bill Belichick and things like that.
I just I don't know it's Steve Wilks.
Yeah, it's tough for me to say that they would go that Yeah, it's tough for me to say that they would go in that direction. But I would be stunned if they if they wouldn't if when for a first time head coach.
I just I can't see that happening.
I'll start by saying i'd be stunned if if McCarthy's out. I know some people kind of feel differently about that, and I definitely felt the heat on Twitter on that on Sunday night, But I just I don't.
I don't see how that happens.
I could be wrong. I don't either.
I could be wrong. I could be wrong, but I just I don't. I don't know. I don't know what kind of see as time goes on.
So, just for clarification purposes, do you believe that coach McCarthy will be let go?
I don't know. I don't believe. So if I was betting right now, I would bet that he's not.
I would be on that same bag when I I don't believe that he's leaving either.
I would bet that Jerry will move on.
I just I can't see how how dejected, he was, Yeah, so yeah, I'll be surprised if he's back.
I wouldn't be I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised, but I don't. Again, that's why I led with he's going to need his supporting cast to help him take.
The motion out of it, true rights. As crazy as that said, No, that's a good point.
That's going to take their emotions out of it and try to be as rationale as possible. And for all the points we talked about in terms of how hard it is to win in this league, to be twelve and five three years in a row mean something? Now does that mean something to Cowboys Nation? Not at all? Right, So what do you do? You find somebody something that can help you get over that hurdle just in the dog on playoffs.
I really like Mike McCarthy. I think he's an excellent coach. So I'm not the one being having to decide this,
and really nobody is other than Jerry Jones. And the thing I keep coming back to as someone that covers the team and you're trying to piece things together is the way Jerry looked outside that locker room, the way he answered the questions, and I just can't get past the week before in Washington when he said all these glowing things about Mike, but then at the end so that they would take it game by game in the playoffs and you know, judging his future in that, and
so when you factor all that stuff in, that's the part that makes it tough for me to sit here and go, oh, yeah, you know, he'll be back for a year five. The other part is too, is that in his fifth in Green Bay, that's when they go to chap him on the Super Bowl.
So I'm sure that that.
Will be brought up quite a bit, but I would be surprised right now just because, like I said, the things I've that Jerry has said, and the way he looked after that game.
Yeah, that's gonna be.
Tough see where you're coming from from that.
From that standpoint, I don't feel like there's a wrong decision there that won't be answered until this time next year, I guess. But that's gonna be the first big question of a lot of questions this offseason. You've got fourteen and pending free agents, thirteen that are unrestricted. You've got a lot of checks to sign, You've got a lot of checks to sign, you got a lot of extensions to work out with Ceedee Lamb, Dak Prescott, potentially Michael Parson's,
Tony Pollard. I mean, there's it goes down the list. There's a lot of things to work through this offseason. We'll be here with you through it. Don't know what the podcast schedule will look like as the off season goes on.
That's more of a Chrispyam question. Go fire that off to him.
But this is this is probably the last one we're talking about as far as the twenty twenty three regular season goes with guys, it's been a pleasure with the season.
It's been a pleasure hosting this one's my first hosting opportunity.
To shout out to Kyle from Indianapolis for letting me have that let me have that on but uh, thank you guys for joining us all season for real, the Talking Cowboys community, it's been awesome on Twitter, on YouTube, everything else. Really appreciate you'all tuning in and listening every day and we'll be back throughout the off season as well. Draft shows coming this week as well, And go ahead, go ahead and get on the phone lines and give a call to Nick Eatman for Cowboys storyline eight eight
eight eight five five two two nine seven. But that's all for us for Isaiah stand back, John Mashoda, Kyle from Indianapolis, and Chris Beaman the back.
I am Nick Harris. Thank you for listening to Talking Cowboys.
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