Talkin' Cowboys: Youth Movement

as always across the table from me. Hello, Hello, Mickey Spagnola's my right, Good morning, Kit Garrison the Garrison next door producing as always. Hi Ken Audi, Yeah, all right, he's out there, Yes, gig him and welcome back to practice, Dallas Cowboys. It's a regular week for once, although that's gonna change next to change, not for long. It's gonna change for a couple of weeks with Thanksgiving coming up

and then another Thursday game after that. But normal Wednesday practice getting set for the Atlanta Falcons, a noon kickoff in Atlanta this Sunday outdoors and the Frozen Tundrum today. Yeah, yeah, looks like they're set up for that. Huh. Soun's out surprise, he's practicing outside today. I was they playing indoors. I was a little disappointed that he was sall water bottles out there. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I mean, why do you think he's doing that. It's Wednesday. It's Wednesday,

and but he's he's practiced indoors before, you know, this year. So, but I just with an with an indoor game this weekend. I was just kind of wondering why he would because what's gonna happen is this guys are gonna bundle up and they're probably not gonna bundle up during the game. So you kind of wonder, you know, if you were if you were to play indoors, maybe you could be a little bit more how you're gonna dress for a game.

Just my thought there, they'll probably be inside Thursday and Friday. Yeah, as is their custom. He'll say it's a beautiful day, and he's not wrong. It's a beautiful day. Hey, any you know, any day to you practice football outside and it's not one hundred and five degrees, you know, why not? But I know it just kind of it's a little it's something a little bit different to think about. It's football, right,

Rob gotta play in the elements. That's right, he's gonna They're not gonna play in the elements, though, they're gonna practice in the elements. Is it? Is it a toughness thing? Hey, it's thirty degrees, but we're you know, we're not gonna go run inside. Well, I can understand it. You know, if you're gonna play getting ready for the Giants, or if that Eagles game was later in the year, you know, or having to go to Washington again, something like that,

I can get it. I just kind of like to I would practice in the conditions that I think that my team's gonna play in. That's just me. But he's a head coach. I'm not so that's fair. Uh. We'll hear from Jason Garrett AT's ten thirty five Central Time directly after this show. We don't know what the injury situation will be, but do you have an idea Mick of guys that might be limited or sitting out or coming back? Oh? I thought you had the release. I

don't get the release. What happened? I was counting on you for that. I was gonna go for that. Huh. I never came came in last night. Not to my Oh the Atlanta released, I haven't seen it. Yeah, what's the deal? Okay, we got ours they're being secretives, you think so Yeah, either that or our departments not doing a very good job, or I didn't take the time to go like search for it. Uh injuries. Yeah, what do you expect from practice today? I don't think much

changes from last week at all. I mean I haven't trying to think of who, Well, Taco is a guy? Who Taco would be a guy? We need to ask about Taco. I think that's the key one, because everything had to it was like a chess match moving guys around with him missing, right, I bet Connor needs another week, I think so well. I mean Randy Gregory missed two weeks with the scope he was I don't know if he was as bad as this. He didn't practice, You're right, he didn't practice for two weeks. Now he was a

game time decision regardless, but right he did warm up. Yeah, but yeah, maybe so especially with another I mean same, everybody's not the same. And you know Williams was walking around I thought a lot better than Randy was after the first week. I can't imagine David. I mean we haven't seen David Irving, have we No, So I can't imagine he's it's kind of his career, right, Yeah, Yeah, And I did see him at lunch. I think you did. Yeah, boot, he's still in a boot. I think that was him

off the scooter. Yeah, he was walking around, So that was him, which he's kind of hard to miss him. I'm pretty sure that was him. I was from distance, and I don't I mean, Sean Lee. I can't imagine he makes it till Thanksgiving, right, Yeah, you need to worry about the calf injury too with Ross, right, because that's a defensive tackle again, that causes you have to move guys around as well. Tyrone Crawford's just hey, play

where he has to play. Yeah, that's I mean, he started a defensive end, then he had to move inside when Maliek Collins went down because Ross wasn't there either. By the fourth quarter, he was back at right end, and then he had to go back to right end because Collins came back right and DeMarcus Lawrence, who normally gets somewhat of a break, got no break. He played fifty six of fifty nine snaps and Armstrong had to

go to the right side. Then, um, so, yeah, that his injury affected and I bet Randy Gregory and I know he played forty snaps. I bet that's a season high, and so that everybody got a little bit extended in that fourth quarter. Best game he's played, you think, Randy Gregory, Yeah, well he had a sack, but yeah, I know what else, just being active being around them. See, that's he's had some games. I think he had a four tackle game earlier in the year, or he had three tackles for

loss or something like that. I'm trying to remember that game off the top of my head. In more limited snap but he didn't have the sacks, but he had he had a tackle for loss a few of them, and you know, so yeah, to me, I'm just I've always kind of been waiting for Randy Gregory. I've always you know, that's another one of those that I'm glad he's back. I'm glad he's got his life in order, you know, I'm I hope he continues on the path

he does. But maybe maybe I thought too much of Randy Gregory, you know, maybe I thought too much of the ability and and uh, you know, and what he's done but again he's he's back. He you know, that's something that I never thought it would happen to begin with. Well, maybe some of it's that that Outliers book. You know, you got to have the time on task to be yeah, fulfilling your potential. I love the sack, you know, two years. Yeah, I love the sack, But I mean I'd like to

just see more. I'd like to see, you know, and if he plays forty plays, made me remember five of those plays, don't make me remember one, you know, so i'd have to say that, you know, to me, they need him out there though, I mean they need him as part of they need Taco out there too, as part of the rotation, because I don't to me, I think I think it affects I think it affects uh, Lawrence when Crawford's not inside, you know that they can team up together and get sacks, you know, the way

they had the push and the and the and the twist stunts and things like that. You know, I think that that hurts That hurts Uh, That hurts Lawrence a little bit. You know. I don't know if I don't know if if the shoulder thing is really hurting him as he do you think, you guys, you think he's played as well. I mean, I'm not saying as well. I think he's played well, but I'm not saying he hasn't had the pressure of the sack, you know, with

since we've kind of found out about this shoulder injury. Yeah, I look at the Tennessee game where a lot of the pressure they got in the sacks they got were based off of his push, his push inside. I'm not so sure about this game. I think he's been pretty Yeah, the sacks aren't there as they were last year. I forget where he's at right now. Five and a half, Yeah, DeMarcus, he's six and a half, six and a half. Okay, I still think he's been productive. And I think you

spoke this the other day. He's he's relentless against the run and that doesn't always show up. That's incredible how he plays against the run. Yeah, that is incredible hype. You know, he's you know, when you start talking about paying complete guys, you know, and he say, oh, what does he do well? He plays to run and the pass. That's the reason why you would pay that guy. They love his motor and he never takes a playoff, and I think it's Mickey said he almost played the whole

game the other night. Usually that you know, his snaps are in the you know they worked fifty Yeah, they rest him during the week too to try and keep him fresh. He's got ten tackles for losses, leads to team in that category. Yes, really, And here's the perspective on it. The next guy with the most tackles for losses that Jalen Smith, was four. Yeah, so uh, he's done a heck of a job with that. Twenty seven total tackles, so that's the most by any of the

defensive lineman. And six and a half sacks. Yeah, twenty quarterback pressures, by the way, which also leads the team. That's good. And Gregory second with thirteen. So he needs to just start cashing in. He needs to, yeah, finish a few of those. That's where I mean, Like I say, I thought it was a great rush the other day that he had. You know, Jason pier did exactly what

you have to do against Jason Peters. Take him out, take him outside and then bring him back and then you know you do that to him, you got a shot. But yeah, I would like to think that. Okay, you know, hey, you know, have some have some stats, have a couple more tackles for loss, have a have a sack or two more. You know, those kinds of thing I think would would would help, you know me look at him a little bit. And then in that light, speaking of tackles for loss, did you see who won NFC Defensive

Player of the Week. That was my next question because I checked it last night and wasn't up yet. Well, finally came out, tell us, no, I didn't see it. It wasn't upland I'm guessing it was Layton vander Esh. Layton Vanderesh is the first Cowboys rookie since twenty ten to win that award, and that's, you know, that's a pretty distinctive honor. That's the best player in the entire conference on the defensive side of the ball. According to

Coach's film, nineteen tackles he was credited with. That's the most ever given to a Cowboys rookie defender. So the NFL Jesus site had him for thirteen for the game, right, so somewhere they found six more. They found assists. He had thirteen solo credited by thirteen solo and then that went to fifteen and then he had four assists. Okay, did you get to the bottom of how he got more tackles? Did they cheated him the week before? Okay,

that's why the member I told you the table wasn't right. Yeah, you thought maybe he got he really got twenty two, right, it was nineteen and there was three tackles the week before that. He didn't get credit for that. When they went over the coaches film, they filled in those. So so that's why the total didn't add up. Huh, he's it's amazing how he's played ninety six tackles already. Yeah, it's amazing how he's played and that, you know, that is a it's a credit to him, it's a credit

to the scouting staff. They you know, we talked about guys like Jason Witton and back in the day that you had a vision for what the player is. They obviously had a vision for what this guy. Was the rookie record for tackles in a single season Dexter Cokeley in ninety seven. He had one hundred and thirty six. Yeah, so if he keeps playing the snaps, he's playing with seven more games to go. Yeah, he may get there. They're gonna need him to have every one of them too, Yeah,

the third most, which he'll probably get soon. Michael Downs and eighty one had one hundred and ten as a safety. Do you think was he their guy kind of all along in the pre draft process? I thought so. They identified him pretty early. It was I think we were having draft shows in March and I and I got to the point where I just said, they're taking vander Esh.

It's just too much. I mean I remember you saying no, and I did it kind of in a in a flippant way, you know, just saying they're gonna take Vanderesh. And then the more you dug in, you know, it started adding up. You know, the visits and the pre draft visits and the workouts and you know, and him visiting at the Combine and all that, and you're just sitting there thinking, Okay, where does Vanderesh fall on the board if you rank the guys of where they fell.

Where they took him is right where a lot of people had him. And so to me it was, you know, it was pretty evident. I just think there were too many things pointing to him being the pick. Yeah, and then but then the the over line thing was the thing with Sean Lee. You know that that that they just couldn't they couldn't be held hostage anymore with that. And you know, I love Sean Lee, but you know, playing playing ten games, playing eleven games every you know,

you can't those six games. I mean there's a difference there. There's five or six, there's a difference there. You need him and you need somebody and I'll tell you what the fact, it's been a perfect combination for him because look what they've really done back to back with these linebackers. If you look at the last couple they've drafted with Jalen Smith and Jaylen Smith has played. You know, he didn't get enough credit for how well he played in

that game. I know, Layton Vanderish made a rookie or the defensive player of the week, but oh my gosh, j Alen Smith was just as good. You know, coverage, coverage task well, I mean he was just you know, there there are things that the fourth down, the fourth and one play, who may that stop right there? I mean he's he's a pretty pretty special player as is. So if you were to and by the way, we got calls in camp wondering already is he was he a good pick? Is he a bust Vanderesh? Because of well,

Brian makes a great point about Sean. They had to project the fact that injuries are a part of his history. Yeah, but I think a lot of fans thought, well, maybe Vanderesh isn't gonna play a lot as a rookie. Yeah, and you need to, you know, you're trying to win. Now,

can you find a guy that can help you? Well, especially when this team didn't have anybody at receiver, Yeah, you know, and then all of a sudden and again you're gonna play against the guy last this next week or this week that you had a chance to to draft. So that's where the questions, and especially how fast Calvin Rudley started this year, you know. Yeah, and the fact that they didn't have a receiver. I think that's where the questions were coming from. Well, they told you what

the plan was, no one wanted to believe it. Well, I think a play that we're going to have three linebackers to play two spots and not over extend anybody. And at that time, you still hadn't seen Jalen Smith, and there was no assurance he was going to play the way he's playing right now. That's a good point. In April, yep, you still had to see it. Yeah. Uh. And then all of a sudden he blossomed by May and June and then worry about you know, and they

started the scene. And remember he missed quite a bit of time in training camp, right, and the preseason games. I think he only played in one May. Yeah, the hamstringing, right growing yeah yeah, San Francisco. Yeh, tackle on the sideline because when we came back here for practice, when they carried camp over here, I don't think he took part in no thing here. And so you didn't see him.

But did you notice in the first game he was out there and they started that little bit of rotation, not as much as they did the second, third, and fourth game, and they started doing it. Uh, and you know, unfortunately there's only I mean, you got to play Sean Lee, yeah, you know, and it gets hurt, but now it's paying off. You know, Sometimes you just gotta wait and not jump to instant conclusions like you got a microwave in your head. Answer.

See if Mickey'll answer the question about our meant what our mailbag was about Jalen Smith. We had a question this morning. Go to Dallas Cowboys dot com to read me and Brian's answers. But Jalen Smith's progress. Do you get the feeling or have you been told that he is one hundred percent now coming off that knee injury from college? You know, I haven't asked since because it hasn't been an issue, right, right, That's kind of what we said. I mean, it would almost be scary if

he's playing at ninety or ninety five. Mean, he's got five percent more of physical ability in him. I wrote it that way. I mean I still think there's things. Yeah, but go ahead, I bet it's not one hundred percent. No, I don't think it is either. I think there's I think there's room for him to even be better. I really do. It's good enough that he has told us in the past. You know, he'll tell you he's one hundred percent. Well, he said that he's not. Watch him

play it. I mean he was, he isn't. He was an unbelievable player at Notre and he's developing in you start to see those traits you saw it Notre Dame, the Combination Nation of the recognition with just that elite athleticism that he has for his size, you know, and we're seeing it, like some of the coverage that he's he's doing. His movements are better. I know, it's good

enough that he's told us in the past. I'm not getting checked for the regeneration of the nerve anymore, right, which I wonder if they do, though, Well that's what he says. I bet you he has follow ups and every once in a while, yeah, maybe see where it's at. Yeah, not how it used to be though, And he's not wearing the brace anymore, which clearly I think that probably restricted him a little bit and turned to this movement.

It's like wearing a ski boot, you know. It wasn't that big though, Yeah, no, but it was just kind of but you tape, you tape that thing up, and it looks like they use seven rolls at tape to get his shoe on, you know, And that no telling what else they have to do inside the sock, you know, or outside the sock whatever they're doing there. So I can't feel great. Yeah, yeah, clearly there were times he

had problem. I mean, the burst wasn't there, and I don't know, he said all those baby steps to take a big step. Now he doesn't do that. Anything goes to the credit of doctor Cooper and Britt Brown and those guys, and to credit to him the player. You know, they they had a plan for what they were going to do and they and they said it. They had twenty eighteen was going to be the start of what you were going to see with Jalen Smith. And they're right.

John Smith clearly is a better football player than he was last year. And last year I thought he made incredible strides. This year, he you know, you talk about the things he could do, the coverage, the blitzing, the tackling, the physical point of attack play. You know, that's why you draft a guy like that. Man, they took a huge risk, huge risk, and you had to you had to also factor in last year, he hadn't played football

for a year and three quarters. Yeah, basically, if that injury was in the first of January and a start playing in September, that's a long time. The next year, not that year. The next year. Yeah, I mean what we were told was anything he gives you in twenty seventeen is kind of gravy. Yeah, because this is the year and this has been a year. Yeah, I mean I think he can even get better. Yeah, I really do. And you watch him play and there's some incredible things

he does right now. But you're thinking, oh man, he's he's gonna he's gonna get that feeling back again? Did he? And he's starting to? He really is. And I could say Vandersch gets a lot of credit and we'll deserved. For last week. I think Jalen Smith was just as good as he was playing a linebacker last week for the college. Didn't win Offensive Player of the Week. I guess not. I didn't see who won it. Oh okay, yeah he's up for the FedEx Ground Award. Chubb when

that maybe the guy from Cleveland. I watched him. Yeah, he had one run of ninety five yards. I saw that. Yeah, get you in ninety nine though, no, it's not quite Tony d But that was against Atlanta, by the way, Yeah, Sunday's opponent. Let's let's take our first break. Talk a little Falcons. Maybe that's why they're thirtieth against the run. Maybe so? Or was it against the past? I can't remember what they were really bad in one cat that too? Why don't you only take our break and you tell

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But how do you explain that craving? Imagine being shipwrecked on a as a diamond, an one glass like curls of self bounded the shore up with Doctor Pepper colored waves, surrounded by desire, but you can't drink it's because it's the ocean fish and even there, the only thing you want is Doctor Pepper and you can't have it. Now, that is a Doctor Pepper craven. Doctor Pepper the one you crave to talk in Cowboys, pick your plays, not

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Weggis had a good weggie for a touchdown the other day though, Yeah, nice shot of the Cowboys weggie and that one in Yeah he did, and they blew those guys off the ball. I don't ever get to write much about quarterback sneaks, but I got to write a little bit about that one that was pretty good. That was good. And the blocking on the one yard run too, Yeah, between I think it was Martin and u Ola Wally I saw make a block. Yeah, Ola Wally, that's that's a that's a first for him. How are you? Oh,

he had a nice he had a block. Another that was a great game for him because he had a block on the on the fake punt. I don't know, I don't know if if now to me. When they snapped a ball to Heath, Heath kind of made a determination. It's like, I'm not going to be stopped here. I mean, he put his head down and was going to get those two yards. But I asked him afterwards, I said, were you worried about getting a pedalty? And he said, as many times as I've been rammed by somebody who's head,

they'd better not. Yeah, he put his head down. But Ola Wally got the key block right there. He and March Lillard really nice job. A matter of fact, I can't. I think if we get our studio back today, I'm gonna break that one down for everybody. So we go, yeah, awesome. I thought you were going to tell him to flash it up there right now. No, Maan, I'll break it down for you on dallascotwits dot com. I could do it right now, but we'll do a full film room session. Yeah,

I do full film room to today today. I look forward to that. We had a little power out. It just yeah, we did. We got our show in here, but it was a little later than we're pretty much the only thing that we could do yesterday was podcast. So, oh man, here's to everyone that stuck with us through all that. Yes, thank you Kent for the help and the crew. Ola Wally, do you also have a seal block? Did? Yeah?

The long run on the left sideline though, you got Oli Wally got a block and actually Rico Gathers got a block on that. About that, Rico magic, know what? I think I saw Rico in there for a play that he was the only tight end in there. That was the play was that it Yeah, it was twenty it was twenty one personnel, all right, and that was and they said, okay. But the thing about it, the play was initially I think it supposed to go to the right and had Rico on the left, but with

the vision all the way back. But hey, give Rico credit. He turned his guy, turned his guys out. That's what she gotta got, ten snaps, turn it out. He's coming along better than Noah Brown. See that's last night we had. We had Noah Brown discussion last night, Nicky's least favorite draft pick of the last of the modern century, I mean draft pick. It was everybody was talking about how good he was because he blocks, and then he maybe it was because he hadn't played for a whole year.

He had a couple penalties. I appreciate somebody else being credit and at miss blocks. He was getting crushed on the line of scrimmage. Wasn't his best game, hadn't played all year, I know, and I give him that. Yeah, they like him. I'm sure they're gonna keep giving him opportunities. I'll tell you what, but when you saw him come in the game, what did you think was going to happen a run? Okay, Garrett tells us something. It's pretty

interesting though. He'll tell you sometimes tendencies are a good thing because somebody will guess and then they guess wrong. Yeah, yeah, exactly, And they don't do that every time he's in the game, but he does. He has. If you want to talk about something he's done well as a rookie, he was a good run blocker in the run game for Ezekiel Elliott. Am I wrong about that? It's a big pan that that cracked toss, so they had that thing blocked well.

But the exception of his block, yeah, I mean, they had everything done the right way and he goes in there and holds you can't do that though, false start too right, yeah, terrible for well, he motioned illegally. Yeah, he headed towards the line of scrimmage. He thought he was playing in the CFLs Like, what's he doing San Jose Sabor casts? Yeah, the Sabor casts versus the Rattlers forward.

It was. It was like one of those things that Nate never watched in the studio and Nate and Nate, you know, he's like, oh, he's going towards the line. Ate screams, and I'm like, yeah, the official hurd him. Yeah, Nate was like, why is he going to? The law is yelling at him. So y'all had a spirited happy hour yesterday. Huh. Yeah. They had a lot of people there, but we didn't get to talk to him that we could hear it. No, No, except that people listening on it,

it might have been good. Yeah, yeah, y'all get into it a bit fun a little bit. Yeah, it's always going to be spirited. You know, when you talk about this team, there's things that they do well, there's things they don't do well. I mean, hell, if we all agreed about this team would be a sad show every day, you know, And that's you don't want a sad show. And did you notice going back to brown is that

they changed that up? Yeah, they decided it's better to go too tight end let's get back in the trail personnel receivers than one blocker out of those three. Yeah, they made an adjustment. Yeah, John's that's your transition to last year's Atlantic game. Oh no, do we have to talk about that one, by the way. Yeah, the eight sacks giving up were obviously the most Dak has been sacked in his young career. People say it was broken

after that, you believe that, bhy in of that. I don't think a guy with that type of mental toughness is broken. But it did signal the downfall of that season. And they haven't found a consistency offensively yet this year. So, I mean, Brian, you talk about what they've done well, what they need to do better? Yeah? Did you see enough from this last game that they can carry this over and possibly get a second straight win for the

first time this season? Oh? You know, if you think about what Atlanta does defensively, you know, I mean, Mickey gave you the numbers thirty against thirtieth against the pass. They haven't gotten the pressure that they have in the past. You know that was that was one of those strange games. That's never seen a game quite like Gail Sears was a great player. He scored six touchdowns one time in the game. Man, that's a strange one. Yeah, strange game.

But you know, I mean this is to me, you know, Dallas, if it gets back to where okay that you know, with you got Sue Filo playing guard, you're gonna be physical upfront. You're gonna get You're gonna get Mary Cooper going again. It looks like these receivers are kind of finding a little bit of the stride right now. Quarterbacks standing there throwing the ball. We've seen it. Mickey's been calling for when the quarterback is protected, he can throw

the football. And I think that that you know, this is a crew that last year. Yes, did they beat you up, but you had a lot of problems on that offensive line. You know that at that time with that left tackle, you know that was a big, big, big gag problem. But and they didn't help him quickly enough. They'll admit that, they'll admit it, but I don't think that that. You know, to me, you handled Vic Beasley,

you handle a tank McKinley, You handle those guys. I mean, you know, that's where to me that this game is really gonna kind of hinge, you know, block those guys, because to me, I don't see I don't see the Falcons playing great coverage. I don't as Robert Alford that they have is you know, he played well in the

Super Bowl. He gives up a lot of plays. I mean a lot of plays, and I'm gonna take my chances if I've got I went back and watched all these receivers play against them, all the big time receivers, the AJ Greens and those guys in the world. He can't cover those guys, and I damn sure believe he can't cover Amari Cooper. So you know, I'm gonna take my chances there, and I'm gonna take my chances at Cole. Beasley's gonna match up well, and you know, and then

you're gonna get gallop going. And you know, we've seen some things. We've seen some positive things from that Philip. The Philadelphia game gave me some encouragement, but their ability to throw the football, because we talked about this Philadelphia secondary was compromised. Well, the secretary doesn't look for him very good either. How many sacks you think they have right now Atlanta as a team, Uh, twenty two? Yeah,

I'll say twenty. So they had eight against the Cowboys last year, right, right, they go, I bet they got seventeen. Here we go, where's that rank? Not high? I haven't got damn near the bottle thing to be last? Yeah, so I'm saying they had eight. Yeah, find a way to block these guys. Six of them went to New England, right, they're missing Adrian Clayborne. Yeah, career performance by him that day. He had four going into the game. No, I think

in the game. Or do you have six six? Six? Yeah, five against Chaz Green I believe, or five against Green? And then another one or two against Byron Bell? And then they had playing well at guard for another loop inside. Yeah, exactly, that's the shoulder shrug emoji. You know that he's playing well at guard Byron Bell, believe it or not. It's playing well at guard for can't believe that for the Packers he is. I watched a little bit of him the other day. Did they lose a whole bunch of guys?

And oh no, they were down to they were down to it and he's kind of coming there and give him a little bit stability. So it's kind of a that's the NFL pay in the Redskins seemed to have the most offensive line problem. They always seem to be banks upfront. Giants as well. Cowboys are the year too. Yeah, they had their share, you know what. And speaking of their past defense, I'm looking right here. They're giving up almost three hundred yards passing a game, two ninety four

point four. Yeah, I said yesterday, six six games, I believe that they've given up three touchdown passes and we're in a row. So they're struggling. They're struggling the back end, and you know that's you got to take advantage of that though. You know, if you've got now, if you've got this receiving corps the way it is, you got it paired down, it's looking good, it's running routes, it's catching the football, it's finishing. Go go take this game

from these guys. And teams have completed seventy percent of their passing against them. They're they're saving grace is their offense. That's that's the flip side of this thing. Yeah, they're outscore yeah, you know, they they did not play well against Cleveland offensively, but before that we've talked about how

good Washington has been defensively. Yeah, they dominated Washington, and so with sarks and in his second year as the offensive coordinator over there, they're starting to look like what they were doing a couple of years ago going to the Super Bowl. Yeah, that worries you. Yeah, n Nate made a good point last night though, and it's taking a little bit. It's taking more time. When when they had Shanahan as a play caller, I mean he was excellent.

He and Matt Ryan were boy lock step. The way they they they called the game and the way he executed the game. Sarkisin has taken a little bit more time, I think, And you know, you're right the second year, but there's just so many weapons. You know, you're dealing with that Julio Jones and snow and then they draft Ridley. You know, he's a really nice player that I mentioned, the tight end Austin Hooper. I think he had several catches against the Cowboys last year. You got to worry

about him on the waggles and the boots. You know, Matt Ryan still is a very very capable quarterback. You know, he'll surprise you with his ability to move the move

in the pocket and make throws. So, you know, the Cowboys, you know, this could very well be a game that ends up like I watched the Cincinnati Atlanta game where it came down to the last possession and both teams are in the thirties scoring, and you know, you hear I'm saying the Cowboys in the thirty scoring, But you know they're capable of with now, with what we've seen, you know, so I just feel like though it's a lot of this game is going to be about can

the Cowboys get one or two extra stops? You know, that's where you can't let him just score at four drives and score three times. You got to have, you know, if you get And the Cowboys have been playing really well in the red zone if or down when you took gold the gold situation too, so that saved him in some of these games. So hopefully they can continue to do that because they've been getting off the field too. Mick, Yeah, you know better, except for that Tennessee game, which was yeah,

that was that was bad. But you go ahead, well you look at Atlanta and they're converting. I think they were converting over fifty percent of their third downs and their third and lungs was like half half of them. They're completing. Yeah, so that's and that's what Tennessee did to you. Yes, you got a third away seven plus they were Yeah, you gotta find a way to get off the field. So the misconception is because the score ended up twenty seven seven, right, it was ten seven

at halftime. Yeah that last year its Atlanta. Yeah that they just you know, just had gobs of yards and Ryan only passed for two hundred and fifteen yards two fifteen. Yeah, they had three thirty six total yards. Now he was twenty two of twenty nine. Yeah, but you know it wasn't like they just smoked him. Yeah, they had Hooper guy had six catches for forty nine in a touchdown.

So you have to be if you're the if you're the Cowboys and after and I know Zecheranz is a special player, don't get me wrong, but if you're the Atlanta you're thinking, Okay, how can we match up? What are they doing tied end wise or what are they doing coverage wise? Is this gonna be a game where you're gonna see again. Is it gonna be Jeff Heath, Is it gonna be Xavier Woods? Is it gonna be linebackers? You know, how do you how do you play against Hooper?

Because he's on the move a lot, and that's when you get a guy that's on the move, then it's kind of hard to cover that guy because if he's stationary, you could say, Okay, that's our guy. But if he's moving, if he's you know, they run traps when they do it, like they do with Jef Swing, they run traps with him. They bring them across the formation, they run the waggles, the boots, they'll sit him down in the middle of the field. You know, there's a lot of things that

they do with this guy. Did they did you see from watching them this last week game against Cleveland? Did they do anything to try to take Khalil away? Did they play more cover too? Try to try allow underneath

stuff with that? But that's what they were trying to do, That's what they really you know, they now like to say where and Mickey's described this as well too, when they play that cover two stuff and all of a sudden you're having to carry that mic linebacker because you're playing your safety's wide, you know, instead of playing him on the hash, you're taking your safeties and you're playing them out to try and help on the deep outside, right,

you know, to carry those guys. Yeah, and now and now all of a sudden it opens the middle of the field. And the thing that Matt Ryan will do is he will take some shots in the middle of the field. You know, get ready for the cross or a cross or a cross, or get ready for the picks, get ready for the deep down the field shots, you know, and he'll throw the ball in the middle of the field. So if you know, I don't think you could give

these guys free access and routes. If this was the old if this was the old Rob Ryan's scheme, you would probably see you would probably see Byron Jones traveling with Julio Jones in this game. But these guys, Chris Rochard and Rod Marinelli more about play your side and play that way. So for Julio Jones, would you take if he caught six passes for fifty seven yards? Would you take that? No touchdowns? Right? Because he's he's touchdowns his last two games, which has been a touchdowns last

year against the Cowboys, the touchdowns were too hardy. Is that a tight end to Justin Harden number fourteen? Cooper and then Coleman had a one yard run. Yeah, but he only had six. I don't know how they covered him. I don't remember six for fifty seven. I'd take that right now. He averaged nine and a half yards a catch, So all that stuff was underneath. The problem was they weren't getting any pressure on Ryan. He got sacked once and they only had four pressures. Yeah, out of twenty

nine snaps. Yeah, gotta do better than that, no doubt about it. All Right, let's take our final break when we come back. By the way, eight five five, two two nine seven is the number we got about twenty minutes left in the show. If you'd like to join us, we'll keep talking Atlanta and a couple changes that have been made in the last couple of weeks that are seemed to be paying off for the Cowboys. Next has been helping Cowboys fans seed better since nineteen seventy two,

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brand of the Dallas Cowboys. Get your Jack Black playmaker That means four JB faves plus a full sized lip bomb for just ten bucks with free shipping at get Jack Black dot com and if you use that codew boys, you get that discount. Oh wait to go. Thank you, Mickey. I was expecting some kind of different finish from you there. Yeah, okay, we'll just go straight here for this. Good job just reading that liner. Appreciate it. Welcome back to Talking Cowboys

inside the SWBC Morgan studio. Rob Brian Mickey kent for a few more minutes, and let's go to the phone lines. Jim in Pasadena, you're up first. What's up man? Good morning, Rob? How are you good? How are you? I'm good, Hey, looking at tape and just letting the condensed copy go and know how to letting the game run. And holy cow, the first half, I can't say that our offense did play well. I think DAK had a horrible first half and its an open Beasley and Zeke and Cooper down

the sidelines. I think it went until the last drive that we even got Zeke going. And then I'm looking at the second half and it's a totally different game. DAK really had a good second half, and I'm wondering if there was changes in the play calling. It seemed like Cooper kept us in the game first half, and then I'm noticing on defense some of your thoughts, please, When we blitched, we got no pressure. It was Jalen

Smith up the middle and they had it stoned. And then in the secondary we can't seem to stop the play action scene pass. They just killed us with that and maybe five or six times in the course of the game. Your thoughts on that, how do we defend that? And if you got any thoughts on what do we want to make Matt Ryan do and what do we want to take away from them? Thanks guys, thanks for the call. Jim, you feel like a whole pregame show there. Let me write it down. What was the last one

about how Ryan Ryan unaffortable? Yeah? The scene pass stuff too, is you know that that's something that has been that's all year, right, that's been all year. That's something that's not new. And that's when we talk about playing the Cover two stuff. That's why you play. You know, people you play Cover two to try and kind of take away that, you know, putting a guy on the hash. But if you play, you play the guys wide, then

that's going to kind of open up some space. They play a ton of single high, which means that you're not gonna you know, you're gonna have to make a determination which way the safety. You know, now you'd like to say, okay, cheat if a guy's killing you in a game, you'd like to cheat his way. But that's something I mean, that's something that when they play that

single high that's that's been a problem, you know. But I think again though, that's a that that player, that player that that you had to face in Philadelphia, he's one of the best in the league when it comes to running that stuff. Though, going up the middle of the field like that. I'll agree on Dak and missing some passes early. Uh, you know, I think there's a

couple that he'd like to have back. I think that, you know, the past that bothered me the most was the one that went up the sidelines to uh Alamari Cooper, because Cooper did a great job of escaping to get open and then you saw the exceller ration and the burst and all that to get past would have been a touchdown, would have been a touchdown, you know. I was.

I was kind of critical of the pass he threw to uh to Elliott in the flat that was behind him, because I thought he should have thrown it up the field. If he thrown it up the field, then I thought he would have scored a touchdown. But watching I think philadelph watching again on table, Philadelphia would have probably tackled him right around the one or the two yard line. But it had given you an opportunity to maybe go for it if you wanted to at that certain situation.

But uh yeah, second half. You know, you know, Mickey talked about this as well. Philadelphia became compromised in the secondary. He started losing guys. They were down anyway, So what did you do? You took advantage of, you know, bad players out there trying to play his zone coverage. You know, you look at the route that Alan Hearns ran, you mean free access inside, you know against Rashul Douglas. You know,

Douglas had no chance in this game. He's the one that got beat by Yeah, that got beat earlier with a with a Cooper. You know, on the pass it should have been been should have been caught or thrown to the long pass. But I think that to me, that I mean, I think to Scott Lenahan actually called a really good game here. I mean I've been I've been critical of him. I've been critical of you know, I'm like, hey, Garrett, I think Garrett can do this. I think Garrett, you know, But Scott did a nice job.

I thought he had. I thought he had a good plan. I thought he had he had an idea of how to how he wanted to attack Philadelphia. I think it wasn't overly run heavy, but but the runs he did call were timely, well executed blocks. You know. I thought he got in the right personnel groups, you know. And I thought that the quarterback, you know, that that that drive that they had right before half would mind me, very reminiscent of what happened in Green Bay, you know,

a couple of years ago, in twenty sixteen. You know, right before half, they're backed up in their own end and then they drive it out and they get a touchdown, and that really flipped the game around. So I give him a lot of credit for staying aggressive there. What was the score at halftime, thirteen three thirteen three. Yeah, so they basically in one half hit their road average very much, okay, and I thought they should have buried them though they should have had perfect right when perfect,

but it was better. Yeah. And and then as for the defense, they gave up twenty points. I know, they misplays, they gave up twenty points. Yeah. I mean, well, I will say say that Philly got going offensively in the second half, but I kind of had, you know, the kind of have a feeling they would They had some opportunities in the first half and just couldn't cash in themselves. Um, Cowboys played well again down there, you know, and you get in scoring they make them kick fuel goals. Yeah,

that's they made kick a field goal. That's that's that's key right there. Those four point plays, I mean, that's difference in games. Right now. They held Philadelphia to two touchdowns. Yeah, I think I think the expectations for this defense have raised. I mean you're saying that, I think people were expecting

them to be you know, fifteen sixteen, seventeen points, you know. Yeah, but Brian's right that that that drive before the half change momentum and Dallas got the ball too to start to have I know they didn't do anything with it, but at least you had the comfort of no one you get another crack at it, right, you know, you wish you'd come down there and done something with that, but you know, Dallas had gone into the game, into that game, and I think I'm right about this stat.

They had yet to score a touchdown or yet to score points in a two minute drive. Is that right? I think that's I think, if I'm not mistaken, that is that going. I know I was looking at some some numbers and stuff, but Dallas didn't think had a had a any type of points in a two minute

drive all season until that one in Philadelphia. And Jim mentioned the two minute offense and we got that was our other male bad question we got asked about Dak seems to execute, feel comfortable when they're in that tempo type setting. Now, it's not something they're gonna do all the time, but he does. Yeah, seem comfortable. Okay, to make it they had points in a two minute drive. Well, the end of the Detroit game, they drove down and kicked a field goal. Yeah, and when you're behind time

expired behind against Washington they finally got going a little bit. Yeah. Maybe it was a touchdown that they had. I don't know, so I thought it was something that they had not. Okay, my battle one one I remember was Detroit two minute though it was the last the time inspired that's true, it was true minute and he drove them down against Washington. Yeah, right,

wasn't his fall he hit the upright miss. I think that the stat I heard was they haven't scored a touchdown on an opening possession yet of a game that that used to be something they did all the time, at least that points. Yeah, but they marched right now. Why they're deferring now? Yeah, Dak in the two minutes or Dak in the two minute stuff. I think it a lot has to do with getting the right personnel on the field now there. I think they're more comfortable

playing with they put. They put Gallop out there, Beasley out there, and Cooper out there, because the way to make a two minute offense work is not change personnel, you know, keep keep the same personnel on the field and then keep rolling along. Find what you're happy with. Fine, fine, yeah, go with the guy. Keep Zeke on the field, keep your three receivers on the field, keep your tied in on the field, if that's what you want to do,

and then play that way. Then you then you can kind of, you know, by substitute and you're kind of hurting yourself a little bit there. But I think they got guys that could play now in a two minute offense and keep them out there and they don't have to worry about them. Yeah, because you don't want to substitute, No, because then they get the substitute and they can drag their butts absolutely there and absolutely absolutely you don't want

to do that. You want to just keep keep the good personnel you have on the field and keep going. I mentioned before the break the two changes they've made. We've talked about Cooper his effect. You said, statistically, they're up in a lot of categories since he's been back, even though they lost to Tennessee. There's no question he's had an impact. And the other thing I thought, second half, we saw this offensive line do what they've done in the past, and that's kind of gets stronger as the

game goes on. And I think I think Mark Colombo is having a different impact on these guys in terms of a more of a physical, aggressive approach. I think it's working so far. No, there's no question, you know, and I believe I don't know if it was last night, but or one of the show mightbe yesterday. Mickey mentioned there's somebody mentioned that that Dak and Zeke both by

name called out Mark Colombo in that game. You know they said, hey, you know, and that's I think as a line coach, you have to appreciate, you know, if you guys, your players are noticing your heart. I mean, nobody's worked. Nobody works harder than Mark, trust me. I mean you watch practice out there, you could tell he is totally into it. He's bought in, you know, whatever they asked him to do, he's you know, the adjustments

they've had to make. And in the second half of that game, I thought were good, you know, with without blocking and what they were gonna do blocking wise, so you know, they protected, they ran the football. Well that's all you can ask for your line coach to kind of get those guys go in the right direction. They'll be interesting to see what they do when Connor Williams is ready to play. Yeah, and and there may be

another game to just evaluate what Suaphilo can do. We'll see, I mean, we'll see if Connor can get back into practice this week. And he's a different type of player, there's no question about that. He's a he's a bigger guy and you know so uh, but they drafted Connor Williams to be that guy and Mickey's right, we'll see

you know. I mean it's a I think you know, it would be very hard for me if in fact, you know, you got in the Atlanta game and things where you ran the ball well again, you protected Dak, were comfortable in the pocket throwing the football, and you know those things, those positive things. You know, the short week, do you want to turn around say okay, well we're gonna put Connor Williams back, even though Connor Williams has

played what seven games right for you? So I think though that if if things roll along well, you might not want to change that. You might not want to change what's going on at least you know, through through the you know, through the Thanksgiving time of the game. Yeah, that's a good point because with a short week, even if Connor came back, he's going to get basically one

practice in. They're not going to practice gonna be really it's gonna be like the Wednesday practice they had after the after the Money Night game, and then the next week you would have a full week. So if if he's just not horrible in this next game, I think you ride with it. I don't know that you have

to go with it long term. I mean Steven answered the question and he talked about how much they like Connor Williams, and yeah, he's a rookie and you know he needs to play, but when you put him in might have to do with the schedule and and the short week. Yeah, you know, we spoke to Suaphilo yesterday, this very professional guy. Had anybody talked to him until last week? Uh not? I don't think on the record, you know, I don't think he's he's held court in

there before. And this is a guy that what day does he douse? He didn't have a dozen dated day yet. Maybe it's Tuesday. I don't know he did that. Somebody said, I don't talk today. What they were Matt Lair, the former guard, He told somebody, I don't only talk on Wednesdays. Yeah, I was like, okay, all right, Uh that was the way bad as like two thousand and four. Yeah, this is a former second round pick that he said. Yeah,

he had to deal with a lot of disappointment. I mean he got cut, you know, and what he's been able to do, what he was able to do last week with you know, very minimal time on tasks. You know, that's impressive. I mean that last week was his first week to get rep Yeah, right, that that shared him with and he did, Yeah, he did. He did not get he just not. I mean, trust me, he's playing something.

He's looking he's playing somebody else's guy. I mean, he's playing the you know, the the guy from the Titans or the guy from the Texans or the guy from you know. And I would as a former alignment, I would imagine that's a little more difficult for alignment because continuity and communication is probably more important than you know, if you're a wide receiver and you're you're stepping into a show. There's nobody that's had to deal with more

change than Tyrann Smith. You know, there's nobody that's had I mean, he's the one guy that they How many guys have you know since since We'll think about just last year, think of all the different guys that have played guard. Started off with Chaz Green at guard and then what happened? Then you went bell at sometime Cooper was in there. Uh did Joe Looney ever get a

little bit of war? And I mean, I mean you know that it was Lyell in the past, it was Colin it was Leary than Collins, than Leary, than Green than Cooper Bell went in there, and now it changed again. Yeah. See that's what I'm saying that this guy, you know, when he was when when when Smith was really kind humming along there, you know, he had a big strong

guy next to him. You know, he had Ron Leary next to him there, and that's a you know, something that you could kind of Again, I trust Stephen Jones and what he's saying here that if they're going to get Connor Williams back in there, good for him. But also you have to think about the football team, you know, and and how you how are you playing presently? Yeah?

How are you know? If Suefielder goes out there and lays a big fat egg against Grady Jerald or Grady Jarrett excuse me, then you know, then he'll be a little bit easier to make that switch. You got about a minute left, Steve in New York, quickly, what's on your mind, sir? Hey guys, just real quick? Uh Rett Maha. I'm not overly concerned about the field goals, but all the kickoffs seemed to be short on Sunday night. There was he being instructed to do that. No, No, he wasn't.

I was. I asked that question. He was not. He was. He was told to kick it out of the end zone and that's that was on him. And but and I also I said, but, hey, you guys did a nice job of covering. They said, yeah, but you don't want to do that. You want to kick that ball. That's why I was a little bit surprised. And Steve, there was no win whatsoever. Their guy was having no problem putting it five eight yards deep. Yeah, that was

that was surprising. I'm not sure what happened. I thought the first one maybe they tried it, but then all the barely reaching the end zone. Yeah, yeah, I asked that. Yeah, thank you, guys, got you not a health issue that we know of. He's not on the injury report. Let's hope he didn't hit the wall. Yeah, but he's missed three of his last five kicks, three misses in the last three games. That yeah, that two games, right, it's been three, but that's it three Yeah. But yeah, we

were talking about you're trying to make a run. Close games. They play a lot of close games. Yeah, I can't have that, can't I can't give up points because he missed two. Did he missed two against Washington? His kicks of these missed have all been outdoors, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, and they need to get him off there. Did he miss one at the Tennessee game? Or was Tennessee not Walton? I'm not sure. Why don't you how do we miss the one in Washington? How don't you look up that

stat and tell us tomorrow? I'm talking Cowboys? We are now, we're struggling with our knowledge today him sorry, sorry, thanks to miss one in each of the last three games. That's what I said. Thanks, good, Well, you're up. Yeah, all right, Thanks the kid for producing, Thanks you guys for joining us. We'll be back with Bill tomorrow to continue breaking down Cowboys falcons. See you guys on Thursday. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.