Player's Lounge: Defending the Quarterback?

former Dallas Cowboys freeting safeties. These are the players. Undewe Scrugs Cowboys Reporters is merely here to help move the conversation go along. Talk about moved the sticks coming out, hot coming out. I just want to beget the show by acknowledgy. Mike McCarthy wrote the check the players cast, So can we at least get them that? Because I don't watch the Sunday shows, I don't spend a lot of time on it, but I see the clips that

will pop up on Twitter. So there are a lot of folks going after Mike McCarthy for what he's said. So the biggest thing the people that I saw a lot of Sunday shows. Oh, Mike McCarthy guarantee the Way and the Dallas Cowboys had their own benches, um bitch warmers for the game ship that was clutch. I ain't gonna line to you. I've been in a couple of games now. I wasn't as cold as the games I played in when we didn't have a heat warmer. But when those things go out, I mean cast getting mad,

cast getting frustrated. What are we doing. We're talking to Bucky, We're talking to Mike, like, man, hold on, get this thing working. What are we doing out here as cold is on? Heck, because when you called, your fingers start getting dumb. Told start getting dumb. You want nothing to do with that football field. So when I when I

heater goes out, I'm telling you it's clutched. It's clutch to make sure you have your old one and always goes out in the way games, Like every time you go to somewhere else, it seems to always flicker and go out. I don't know, but I would have been frustrated if that thing was off. Listen, and I'm gonna just say this all right. Shout out to Mike McCarthy for pulling up the guarantee. But I tell you this,

I'm sure he was holding a real little tighter. The end of that game, I'm saying, oh, man, didn't I didn't feel asleep at halftime, like yeah, defensive roller, We're okay, We're good. And then the second half comes around and we do our usual thing, you know, start snatching people out of the game, don't play inspired as we have been playing at the beginning, and then letting some people

sneak back in the game. And then all of a sudden, they guarantee looked like it might have been at risk, and I was like, oh, please, don't do this, the big Mike, don't do this, the big Knight, don't do it. So I saw a little nerrves on his face, but he pulled it out. Man, So shove off the hill and shout out to the cowboys to getting the douve, and we back on another victory by day. Hey Man. At certain point the time, I'm thinking, if I'm a carthay, I'm looking at this is kind of where I miss

Bill Parcels because there would have been a confrontation. I have to Dick through that interception. They put them, and they put Washington in the game. There would have been there would have been a confrontation, there would have been words, and Mike McCarthy just just held it all in there. Most of all, they get the win and no one, I mean, I didn't see any tweets or anything about the benches afterwards, though people were trying to play that

whole thing up because it was forty eight degrees. Okay, so they didn't they didn't need defenses. But it's amazing about how many people wanted to make that a topic and saying that the Cowboys were disrespectful and that they inflamed the rivalry. And most of all, as Todd Archer pointed out and others later did, was that Seattle's operational people told the cow boys, hey, guess what, those benches don't work. They went out on us. So, oh well, So what did Jerry do as to me as a

responsible as a good owner. He decided, I'm not going to take the chance that Daniel Snyder and the folks at FedEx Field will have working benches. The league will allow us to bring in our own. So he rented them from a company in Cleveland, who wouldn't brought them down to the football game, and then they put their

they put the cowboy logos on there. So to me, this is where give Jerry Jones credit because he takes a lot of bullets, but give him credit for trying to make sure that his players were not who going to be in a position of being cold if the weather turned a certain direction. I mean, you're right, Jerry's always been, you know, a players guy like, he's always looked out for his players for the most part. And I'm telling you when you it wasn't that cold, so

it wasn't that big of a factor. But you want your players as comfortable as possible when they hit that football field. I mean they're already putting their bodies on the line, crashing into each other, hitting me, getting concussions, you know, tearing ligaments. So I mean you gotta make them as comfortable as possible. And by having a heated bench there, I mean, Jerry can afford it. He got all the money in the world. So to me, you know, it wasn't a big deal. Get him on there, get

him heated up, and get him ready to roll. Yeah, you listen, let me tell yourself, Jerry, Jerry, he remembers, okay, that that year we went down to Chicago and everybody was freezing. How we went out there and performed, all right. So he's like, listen, I'm not giving us no reason, and my head coach made a guarantee, so I'm gonna make sure that there is no reason or excuse for us not to go out here and win this game. So shout out to him. He put the pressure on.

He put his money behind everything that he's talking about. It is like, I'm going to do whatever I can to get this team to win the Super Bowl, included bring our own heating benches if we need to, all right. So he's cutting no corners in this. So shout out to Jerry, and you know he's serious about it. Hey, mccraig, Ay mc craig, he was there that year. We went to Chicago. We gotta the bus kit, we gotta bus kit. But then they cut off the hot water for the

shot afterwards, and we would take it. It was already, you know, close to below zero out there. They cut off the heat in the showers. Man, boys couldn't even take showers. Man. It was. It was one of those deflating losses. Man, I was listen, you know, I went. I went to Chicago the next year. And it's not

that they cut it off. It was when it's that cold, you have to run that water for almost twenty four hours for it to be warm, right, So of course they didn't go to our side in the locker room be like, yeah, we're gonna do the Cowboys a favor. So they was like, yeah, we let them figure this out on their own. And that was some freezing. That was probably the dirtiest I've been on the plane ride back home because I was like taking up one of those one of those kid washes. I just put the

twel under a little bit. Yeah yeah, hit some salt the tie and he was going ahead, Yeah yeah, yes, so that because that's all you can do. I was there that day too. That was ridiculous. Man. I think it was Josh McCown. Josh McCown had one of them crazy days man as the quarterback. But I was, I was woof and uh yeah, I made I made shoot it. I did not go back to Chicago unless I check the schedule again because I was in December. Games like

you will not catch me. The Soldier Field and December ever again, and I think they went back, maybe it was two years ago. They went back and the weather was nice. It was later in the year, but it was not anywhere close to what it was before. So the Cowboys get the win here, and I think we can go ahead and act like hanging with the boys in the break and just pat ourselves on the back because yeah, you know, dude, the way they always like

to do that. But we were very right on the players lines talking about what we thought the impact would be and could be by getting Neville Gallimore, Tank Lawrence, Randy Gregory back and how it could help Michael Parson. The front seven was absolutely, absolutely ridiculously wicked. Just looking at the game here, Washington three or fourteen on third day, I'm twenty nine percent. Four turnovers for the defense. Six possessions all right, there were fourteen possessions in the game

for Washington. Offensively, six of those possessions were three and out seven punks. You could not really ask you defense to do much more than they did yesterday. In my opinion, hit FedEx. Yeah, listen, the defensive one out there shout out to taking lauds. Also, by the way, who's been showing up for the last two weeks. Churches guy double Gallimar.

He's been hyping them up since last year. Last season, A Church said Neuble Galliwar was gonna be one of those big time players on the interior defensive line for us, and he is showing out. I see the pull a vita vea. It runs straight through the center. We want to play right. Took it right back into the quarterback Randy Gregory. I'd looked like a defensive back trade. Mound Diggs is running off on everybody. Boys, I had getting Tippins tipping it to him. So you got Michael Carson's

out here getting multiple sacks. The only thing that could have went better, and is Anthony Brown capitalizing one of those two interceptions that he had, all right, and then let you know that, lets you know that he was in position to make the plays. And I'll take a

PVU before I take a completed pass anything. So I think we all around went out there and play and as in game, unfortunately, we continue to take our foot off the gas at the end and let these teams rack up yards and get these trash touchdowns and make the game a little bit more interesting. Than it should be. But our defense came to play yesterday and I'm starting to see this attitude of like, we are going to beat the unit to carry us deep into the playoffs,

not the offense. I think they took offense to everybody saying that as long as we had the middle of the road defense that we would be okay. They're like, nah, we're gonna hold. We're gonna do more than that. We're gonna we're gonna be the people who carry this team into the playoffs and may then have to respect our defense when they playing against and saying how they're gonna

beat us. You talked about that too, We talked about that, We talked about the two on the shows that the defense at this point time is gonna have to carry this team. Right now, that's where they're at. Go ahead, Church. Yeah. I had to let Danny get that in there because he was calling in front of the beginning. Man. He called it definitely, you know back in March talking about get dan Quinny and how he's gonna impact this defense. So definitely, hats off to dan Quinn. Danny called it right.

This team, this defense, I mean, they're hitting off all cylinders right now, and like you said, News, we talked about it on the players lounge with the big three, Parsons, Gregory, and the law out there. It's like picking your poison offensively, Like if you slide the line one way, you're leaving all these other guys with one on ones and then they just Parsons and Lawrence that you're leaving one on ones. If you decided to slide the line to Gregory, like

you said, you got Neville Gallimore in there. Oh, Digizua, Calos, Watkins. They're so deep on the defensive line it's ridiculous. I mean you could literally have a fresh set of defensive lineman rotating there and the play might drop off a little bit, but not significantly. So this defense is rolling right now. Like you said, Randy Gregory picked off right

where he left off. I mean he had five sacks going into that and then he had injured Mystery Weeks, came back, got another sack, forced fumble, got another pick interception. The guy is all over the place and would impressed me the most about this defense. In this secondary it was like you said, everybody was in position. There was nobody you know, busted coverages. You didn't see anybody complaining

important fingers. Everybody was there where they needed to be, and even if Washington was able to make the play or make a catch, it was contested. There was no yards after the catch. And what a job Diggs did. Or scary Terry McLaurin. I mean that matchup I thought was gonna be a little scary for us. But three targets, zero receptions for McLaurin until he got hurt. I mean, this dude, he did what he hasn't done all season.

We know he's good for the interceptions. We know he's good to jump on something, to break on the pass or anything like that. But he literally got in mcclaurin's face and locked him down. He shadowed him with right left. Wherever mcclorin was, Diggs was right there in his hip pocket. And I would love to see more of that as the season progresses. But this defense, man, You're right, mcfraidy. They're carrying the squad right now and right now, this

is the formula for success. But I don't know if it can last too much longer when we start playing better teams. We think Dig's gonna get a second contract. Now, Yeah, he was right. He was right, nude, he was right. Listen the way that Digs is playing right now, he continues this for the next couple of years. Yes, he will get he will get a a second contract. And that's easy. That is easy if dan Quinn is here. Everybody on the defensive getting second contracts, all right, everybody,

because everybody has elevated their game. What did I tell y'all about Tank? Give him the same time that the other players on the team have had with dan Quinn, who is a defensive line specialist. Give him that same time and see what take Lawrens you get. And we are getting the Tank Lawrence that the Cowboys paid for. And I can only imagine as he continues to get his feet under them and continues to get in football shape, how good he's going to look. This is going to

be an amazing defense. We have an opportunity to be something really, really special on the defensive end. And I think that that one has to go to dan Quinn, but two has to go to the players for buying in as well. Agree with a one hundred percent one hundred percent And I want to emphasize this very much and taking nothing away from what Tank and Randy Gregory did in the defensive defensive in spots because they were fantastic.

But you saw what Neville Gallimore could do as a defensive tackle and why I was I was talking about how good he had looked at camp, but he was their best interior defensive player. How he was moving that center around. I mean, and plus he had those those sweet air Jordans on he got the right right, I mean, so you got him on the center. Next thing, you know, they got Michael Parsons, you know, going in blue, you know,

blitzed off his hit pocket. I mean, that's what happens when you can can have a presence up front that interior line. The Gibson here was his numbers. Ten attempts, thirty six yards. Man, that's what he did. They just as a team. Washington had twenty three touches for one hundred yards. But you and I saw it. There was nothing affective. They couldn't get their run game going at all. And Gibson last year was I think he had his

two career highs against the Cowboys. So they shut that down, and once you saw that, it allowed in my opinion, once you shut the rundown, now they got to throw it. And this is where you saw a tank. You saw Randy, you saw Parsons. I mean, I poor kid out there, man, Taylor, How Dicky saw ghost? I mean maybe literally they beat him up. He had to leave the game, and that Sackra Parsons came in and picked him up and put him down. I mean that was vicious, man, that was vicious.

It was definitely filthy how they did it. And and like you said, last year, Antonio Gibson, he rushed for two hundred and forty three yards and I think three or four touchdowns against US in two games. And then this year you fast forward it to what we got

going on now. That combination of Neville Gallamore, oh, Dicky Zua, Carlos Watkins, I mean, Tristan Hilling there, that interior defensive defensive line right there, it really sewed it up and it allowed like you said that the line depending their ears back. What are you gonna do when you have a package like that where you got the Law on one side, Gregory on the other side, pinning their ears back, you got Michael Parsons just rolling in the front line.

You don't know where he's gonna pressure or where he's gonna come. It just leave too many one on ones for the offensive mind. And if you don't get that ball out quick. I mean, these guys are hunting. They're head hunting out there, and it's a scary sight. Matsten. Listen, and I'll say this one of the biggest differences that you that it's been so obvious when Tak Lawrence and when Randy Gregory were not in the game and you watch the other teams playing on how they were going

to attack us in the run. They were attacking the edges. People were not standing outside. You would see runs break outside all the time because you would see the deepest of ends give a little nose and they would peek inside and then the room will pop outside for eight to ten yards. You were not seeing that anymore. You got two veteran guys out here who are playing their responsibility and rushing the passer. And I'll say this for the defense Church. You named all those guys right, all

of the Carlos backingsas Tristan's Hills. Right. When you have a defense that is playing this way, that puts the onus on those guys, those rotational guys to come in and make sure that they play up to the standard. Right when you looked at it last year, there was no standard for the guys to come in and blow

them too. Now, when you start saying stuff like, hey man, we got a guy like Parcels, we gotta pub like we got a guy like Tank and Rander Grandy Gregory, When when those guys come in the game, they know what's expected of them. And I think you can see that through the entire secondary, through the linebackers, and you can see another the defensive line. I really, I just think it's it's it's a total one eighty from what we saw last year. And that's that's the exciting part

about it. All. Right, let's take our first break. There's a game ball I want to give give out and fans out there won't really notice it, but I know when I mentioned who it should go to, Danny and Barry will say yes. And what's going on with Dak Prescott? Is it mental? Is that what's going on? Possibly decision making? Let's dive into that next on the Players brought to

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the official smoothie of the Dallas Cowboys. Place your order in the app or online for pickup or delivery. Smoothie King rule the day it's game day. You know what that means. First, cubob prep steak pepper Runnion. Steak pepper Runnion. Next, a counterclockwise lap around the rule. Now the lucky grease stained jersey goes on, and lastly the dance you know the one. This is a game day ritual no matter where you are, whether you're traveling to the game or

watching from your favorite vacation spot. Boca plays to stay on Hotels dot Com and keep the tradition alive and well. Hotels dot Com proud partner of the Dallas Cowboys. Nobody protects you from mayhem like all State. I'm a broken traffic lady, stop and go. As the name of my game, it's easy you go, they go? Or was it they go? You go? And if you have the wrong car insurance, these repair costs could stop you in your tracks. So get All States New Low Auto rate and be better

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in a seat Back to the players Loud. Dak Prescott is the Dallas Cowboys nominee for the Walter Paid NFL May of the Year Award, presented by Nationwide, recognizing NFL players for outstanding community service activities off the field and excellence on the field. Help Dak earned twenty five thousand dollars in a donation to his Faith Fight Finished Foundation by voting on Twitter tweet hashtag w p m o

Y challenge followed by Prescott through January seventeenth. Vote Dak, you are in the players line brought to you by Hotels dot Com. I k new we scrugs alone by joined along aside former Cowboys safeties free agent safeties by the way, they need were first round picks. They had to earn it with about the blood, as they say Danny mcraig. So we all were praised in the defense at last segment as we should have. They were outstanding.

A game ball needs to go to Britt Rank because Britt Rown, who we've seen as we go do this podcast, you see out of the Star all the time working to get guys back. Neville Gallimore hadn't played since the preseason, so not only did they help get him back, Britain the staff, but you saw him effective. You know Tank Lawrence who broke his foot after the first game. I mean,

he's back and effective. And that's the kind of thing was. Man, you gotta give a guy a game ball like that, because what kind of price tag can you put on getting guys back and having them be effective. You guys have worked with britt as well, so you know what he can do. And May the guy's a hell of a trainer, man, and that's why, I mean, that's why he's been doing it for what twenty five plus years now.

I mean, he's amazing at his job or what he does, and it's just amazing because he brought these guys back. He had such lengthy you know, injuries. They were out what I think the Law was out maybe ten weeks, Neville Gallimore even more. And you saw out there there in durance was good. It wasn't like they were huffing and puffing or out there just a long one knee can barely go subbing in. And now they were out

there good for me well, and in dire situations. So you gotta love his training ability to get these guys back in shape and back on the field and having some of their best games out there. And I just reflect back to when I tore my achilles. You know, I did a whole year rehab. What Britt came back in twenty thirteen and had, you know, one of the

best seasons of my career. So shouts definitely goes out to Britt Brown and Jim Mower and those boys because they definitely know what they're doing and they get these guys back as soon as possible and sometimes better than they were when they left. Yeah, I'm a second everything that Church just said, you know, fill the injuries that I that I sustained when I was playing. Britt and Jim and and g Money, they all took care of

me when I was in there. But I'll say just to add on, I think one of the most important things that they're able to do is get these guys back when they're ready to come back, right. You don't you don't often see us put that pill guys back in there when it's too early, and you don't see them sitting out for too long. Right. It seems like they always come back right on time to where you don't see them some for those same type of injuries. Again, So shout out to them for being able to do that.

And you have to gain the trust of the players in order for them to be able to have that belief that you're doing the right thing and takeing care of the right way. You don't see a lot of people going to get second opinions on the Cowboys trading staff either, because they trust that what that staff is doing. So you know, they're great. To shout out to all of them. But they got our guys back and ready

to go. And I'm hyperbout it. Yes, yes, in this defense, as we were talking about, may have to go ahead and carry the Cowboys down the stretches they get ready to go to matlife, stay to face the Giants, then host Washington the day after Christmas on NBC Sunday Night Football, then host Kyler Murray and the Cardinals before ending the season half Philadelphia. The offense, on the other hand, has got some issues. I'm just sitting right now looking at how they were one and six in the red zone.

There were six punts in the fourteen possessions on offense that the Cowboys had in the fourth quarter in five drives, there were three punts. In those three punts, they were three outs, and then you had an interception. In the football game. The Cowboys win twenty seven twenty, but the second half was ugly and Dak Prescott completed twenty two or thirty nine for two hundred and eleven yards, one touchdown, two picks with the QB reading of fifty eight point eight. Guys,

what's going on? Yeah, I'm gonna tell you like this. I'm gonna tell you like this. Okay, I'm gonna keep it straight. We've been talking about this run game, okay for week one, all right, and if you're not able to do it, you're going to continue to be in these situations. If you look at that runs a bootleg and throws an interception, the linebacker doesn't even look like he bent on the run face. You know why, because

you ain't got no ringing. I mean, you're the reason that you're able to run bootlegs is because you have established the run or the deepest beliefs that you are going to run the ball. Same thing with screens. The only reason you can run the screen is because somebody You believe that somebody's putting some pressure on you, because that's that's that's the illusion that you're giving off. There's

no allusion with our ring game, all right. And the thing is even with Zeke Hamper on Sunday, I still believe that we had a chance to continue to get some of those runs. And he wasn't moving as fast as he as he usually does, but he was getting

some positive some positive runs. You just want to keep the defense honest, and I think that still oftentimes in drives we've moved away from the run, or we'll start with a deep pass on first down and before you note, you behind the sticks, so you got to throw it on second and third and it didn't work out for us. Dak has looked off. He just looked off. I'm not sure what's going on with him. Some of his placement on some of the balls have been off, his decision

making and some instances have been off as well. I'm not sure what's going on. And he doesn't trust what's in front of him. He needs to be able to move in the pocket a little bit better, scramble a little bit more. It's it's a lot that he can do to get better. But overall, I think this really hinges on the offensive line in our billity running football. Yeah,

you're right about that. I'm with you on running the football, and it's tough, it's tough to because you know, when we don't, we don't know when we're gonna get back Tony Pollard. He has that foot injury, and Zeke just hasn't looked himself since he's been injured. As we can tell, he's still laboring around out there, and it's not like we can we can rest him because we have who we have behind Clement. I mean Clement, he came in and did a couple of good things, but is he

a featured back. Is he a guy who can turn around and hand the ball off two twenty five times a game? I don't know. I mean, he's never had that type of situation in his career. But we've got to find somehow, some way to at least have the threat of running the football. I mean, it's just but right now, with our two lead backs hurt, it's a

hard thing to do. And like mccraie said, when when you don't have any type of threat of the running game and you're trying to get the ball out of your quarterback's hands quickly, the whole defense is just sitting back and watching. You can't really, you know, do an RPO or fake to run and do a quick bubble

screening because nobody's gonna bite up on that. And like that that that bootleg McCrae was talking about, he had a defender in his face, but it's like the linebacker got so much depth under there because no but he was forced to bring him up he had. If you watch it, he didn't even take one step towards the line of scrimmage. As soon as the ball was snapped, he turned and knew something was coming his way and got underneath that overwrought by Dalton Scholtz on that one.

So I don't know if it's the creative play call from Kelly Moore, if defensive coordinators have caught up to him and caught up to how he likes the call plays, or whatever the case may be. But something has to change. And like mcraie said, Dak Prescott looks off, you know, ever since that calf injury. I'm gonna say it. I mean, he just hasn't looked right. Whether it's accuracy, just timing with the receivers, whatever the case may be, he just

has not looked right. Because if we're being honest here, he should have thrown four interceptions yesterday. I mean that first drive going out there, he hit the corner dead in his hands. I mean it looked just like Anthony Brown out there. He dead in his hands, was nowhere

near the receiver on that one. And then you fast forward to i think the third quarter, and he threw that screenplay when you when you know as a quarterback, And I'm sure he knows this if the screen is covered up, if d lineman or all over it, you know, hey, we don't have a play here, Let's just throw it in the dirt instead. He trying to take a risk, and I don't know if he try to side arm it in there. I don't know what he was trying to do, but hit the d line in writing the numbers,

and thank goodness he dropped the football. But he could have had foreign receptions out there. I'm not sure what's going on because it doesn't seem like he's getting a lot of pressure. Like I feel like, you know, maybe there's opportunities here and there where he has to run a little bit, but it's not like he's getting running for his life out there. I feel like he has he has a pocket enough to do some damage out there.

So I'm not so sure if it's the receiver's not getting open if it's the play calling, but whatever the case may be, that that definitely needs to step his game up if we're gonna think we're gonna have a long playoff run, because I tell you now, once we get to the playoffs, we're not gonna run into too many Taylor Heinekes. There's gonna be a lot of Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady's and those sorts. So we're definitely gonna need an a game from Dak Press Scott. I'll say this.

I'll say this too, man. You know when you want to help out the quarterback and you want to if you're not going to run the ball, you want to give us some easy throws. And I just as I'm watching the Green Bay Packer game yesterday, and I'm looking that Aaron Rodgers and DeVante Alice and how the game becomes so easy for them, right when you have that number one guy who you can depend on to get open. You see the quick slant in his own easy pass,

you don't even have to call a play. Hey, then we got DeVante one on one, He's gonna run quick slant. He's gonna catch that ball in his own same thing. At the end of the game, quick out. You know he's gonna be open. It's easy throws for a guy, so he could give into the rhythm, and I just hadn't seen us be able to do that, which is why I always HARKing on this Amari Cooper being on

number one receiver. You have to have a guy who when when things are going bad, you can lean on this guy, say this guy's gonna be open, and we have not. It looks like we haven't schemed scheme that, so you don't see it when we get into these situations where hey man, you've gotta have it. What are we gonna do? It seems like it's a schemed up play concept versus hey man, this is our player who we're gonna lean on to get us get us this first down. Ah. There are definitely some things that's gotta

get fixed around there. Confidence is obviously one thing for Dak Prescott had Jack Taylor on my TV show last night and Jack said at a conversation he had with Dak Prescott that Dak talks about, Yeah, you know what, I can't lose confidence. He says, you know, we're all human, and I think something where fans don't always want to acknowledge is quarterbacks are a lot like pictures. You're gonna go through some bad streams. Okay you are. It happens,

and it's how do you get out of that? And so I don't know whether this is the combination of Kelly Moore helps Um the offensive coordinator, or whether it's the offensive line. When we come back, there is an issue, possibly two issues with the offensive line. Is they get ready to face the giants. They got to go up to MetLife stake and will dive into that with Danny McCray Barry Church, I'm new he strugs. This is the players line brought dot com ocurring issue, this is this

is da dot com. But nobody protects you from nahem like all State. I'm a broken traffic lady, stop and go. As the name of my game. It's easy you go, they go, or was it they go you go? And if you have the wrong car inserts, these repair costs could stop you in your tracks to get all stays new low auto rate and be better protected from mayhem like me. Not available in every state based on coverage in the mid selected It subject the terms conditions and availability.

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Vote for each player by visiting NFL dot com slash Pro Bowl, or by tweeting and retweeting posts with hashtag Pro Bowl Vote and the player's name. Vote for your Dallas Cowboys today. This is the players lines were two former Dallas Cowboys safety's Buried Church and Danie McCray in the House of New he scrugs. All right, guys, let's let's talk about the offensive plot. There's there's one thing that you guys are gonna be happy about, and that

is how the line responded. When Dak Prescott got pushed on the sidelines, Lell Collins came to his defense, threw a punch, and he was ejected. I was a lot different when we saw last year where Andy Dalton was getting thrown around and he was just like looking at him like, oh right, Now here comes to issue. As you start to get ready for the thing it gets New York. Will the NFL suspend college with a punch, and so that means if he's suspended, you got a

right tackle issues. Tyler Smith left the game, has an ankle injury. If he doesn't play, then you're gonna need a left tackle. So you could need two tackles, which the count was, Oh, by the way, had their backup tackles out there the end of the game. They could need two tackles going into this Giant's game. So Bellas is something to think about, especially as we talked about trying to get the one game fixed with two running

backs who are not help Danny. I was, I know you better not be giving a layoff college no, no, no points, but going out throwing the punch again me take it all right, I know you better not be doing that. Yeah, I'll have enough by different attitude. Oh, none of that. It's a different way to get that type of stuff handled. You ain't have to throw no push. You know why you don't need to throw no push because you're already missed five games. Never miss five, you're

just five already. What are we doing? Like? What are we or it does not make sense, It doesn't make sense. I've seen players defend their quarterback and not get ejected from games. I've seen it happen. You do not have to get ejected to show that the offensive line is there for their quarterback. You don't have to do it because, like you said, now you have an issue where you possibly don't have either tackle right you're talking about you're

talking you're talking about going on a run. You're talking about making it deep into the playoffs, getting the offense back on track. This is this is what you're trying to do with. At the same time, you're also missing players who are key parts of it. Where where the coaches put you in a position to say, you got your starting job back because we don't know why, but you got it back. And man, and now and now

now you might be suspended again. I mean, I just it don't make sense to shout out to help and having back back and Zeke and all that stuff. I just wish he would have found a different way to do. Do a chess bump, do something you ain't got to You ain't got to punch nobody. Man. The funny the funny part about it, man, is when they closed stuff, when they did the close up on him, he was

he was his heart. He was trying as hard as not to swing like he was like, oh I can't, and then just the instincts and just I don't know what it was just took over. And when I dud ducked his head, he definitely swung a little uppercut in there and caught him one. But like you said, he could have did with Zeke did ran in there, just gave him a little chess bump, push, push, and just

you know, separated things like that. We've seen it all the time in practice, when guys really don't want to fight, they just kind of grapple each other, hold each other up by the by their jersey, like, oh no, you swing first, you swing first, take your helm and off. He could have did one of those, but the instincts took over. He decided to take that swing and hopefully the NFL doesn't swing and try to suspend them. So it puts us in a shaky situation. But he's been

doing this before. They put us in a shaky situation earlier in the season when you know, we know what happened. So man, he just can't seem to find his way out of trouble. I'll say, who started the downfall on his officive? Lite? Who did it? Okay? I want I want to I want to see him play. I'm just saying this is this started. Okay, we had a we had a bad left guard, you know what I'm saying. But he did go against some some top knots competition.

He was getting walked back into the into the quarterback. But but but as far as shuffling the guys and trying to figure out how we're gonna protect east Side, we know when it started. Well, you disagree game game one, when when Zack Martin missed because of the COVID. The there's just been one issue after another with this offensive

line all season long. If we just come going back to Game one of not being able to have the guys who thought you'd have out there, and then we'd put some of the guys out there, you're like, oh, we got a problem the left We got the problem with the left guard, and then you got issues with

the center. I mean, um, this when the season ends, it'll be very interesting to see him kind of conversations Joe Philbin and Mike McCarthy and Will McClay have because frankly, I thought this unit would be a lot better than what it's been that Um, so there's issues. And look there's another issue coming up this week, and it's about who's going to be available and who will be healthy if they are available for this football game. So, um,

they think we're going against the Giants. Man, So this offensive line, the quarterback, you and then the running backs aren't healthy. So this offantastic issues right now, guys, and you just hope and this is where you're paying people a lot of money as coaches fix it, figure out how you fix it, and get with your players, because right now, what you have it's not going to take you very far in the playoffs. I see it right now. I saw Temple Man they were firing that that blitz

up against Buffalo. I'm just telling you it's it's it's some defenses you do not want to see if your offensive line is not at full strength. All right, moving into the playoffs, when you start playing some of these better teams we've seen, We've seen us have struggle with teams in the AMC. We're seeing us have trouble with the Saints offensively. If you look at a team like like Tampa right now, who is they're starting to can't fire a little bit on defense? This is not a

recipe for successful us. We have to find a way to get the five best play and make sure they're healthy and ready to go. This is the challenge, and this is why you pay coaches a lot of money. This is where Mike McCarthy and Joe Philbin and Skip Pete and Kellen Moore and Doug and Dust Meyer, I mean all this group of guys, these coaches, man, this is where they've got to go ahead and figure out

how how they addressed the warts murder. Talking to Duck Collins, the former coach of the Chicago Bulls and He was working at T and T at the time and talking to a group of people and he said, hey, guys, your job as a coach is to buying the warts and cover up the warts. Sometimes you can't fix everything because you know, it's just how sports works, and sometimes your players and what you have is what you have.

So how do you cover it up? And that's to me the challenge for the Cowboys right now on offenses. Just figure out how do you cover it up? And maybe you can become what Kansas City has become. Because one the thing I noticed, and I don't know how chew guys have watched this, So you saw Kansas City struggling with the defense. They get guys healthy, get guys healthy. Now boom, now they're playing well. But at the same time,

the offense is going through a couple of issues. And then yesterday against the Raiders, the office just broke out and they went crazy. Now you look at Kansas City and you say, you know what, man, that could be a team that could win the Super Bowl the way they're playing on both sides of the football. Had seen their defense play that well in the last three four years.

So kay, yesterday and yes, they did and maybe it's Maybel and Tea didn't normally like to run the ball, So maybe the Cowboys and these next four football games can find some of that. And guys, let's be honest, if they go beat the Giants and they beat Washington and then you get into a great shootout with Arizona and come away with that one, you're gonna look at this team a whole lot different, a whole lot different, because now they're gonna be sitting here with three more wins.

You now they're talking about a team with twelve wins in the back. What I doubt you're gonna look at them different, especially if they're able to rattle off these next three because Arizona, it goes New York, Washington, Arizona. Am I correct with that? Yes, yes, sir. Yeah. So if you're able to rip these next three off and it puts you in great position to even challenge for that number one spot as far as the NFC contender is in the playoffs, then we are looking at this

team totally different. Now, the question I want to ask both of y'all is do y'all feel like, let's just say we do rattle these off, we rattle these wins off, but we're having that same type of formula where the defense is carrying us. They're taking the football away. Offense has been so so, but they haven't really, you know, just cost us the whole game. Do you feel like that formula could work and it lead to a long time,

a long term playoff room. I do. I mean, like I said in my opinion, you have to have something to lean on when you're when you're I say, when you're passing games now not working. But you can't lead on your offense at all, then your defense has to be able to make some type of plays for you. What we know about our defense is they're giving us

extra possessions. They can't even score the ball. What we know about our special teams is at any point that you know, bones, as much as he does some crazy stuff, we can block a punt, we can get we can get some type of faith going. So we still have opportunities to make stuff happen. But as long as our deepest can keep us in the game, I still have faith that our offense can can get a score when they need to. I mean, I don't think we have to score. It's it's great for us not to happen

to score thirty to win. So I think the recipe for success for us is that that New York Giants type of type of defense that you talked about when they had those four guys up front and they can rush for the four and then and then just play coverage on the back end and shut guys down. I think that if we're able to do that, we got

a chance to be just about anyone. The red zone efficiency is a problem with guys, and that even you go back and you look at New England win that they had of a Fox brow Um, the Cowboss just got to be better in terms of getting point to mean one of six yesterday in the red zone. That's just that that's good enough to be a Taylor Heinekey, but that's not good enough to be you know, a Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers or some of these other

folks that you can potentially face in the playoffs. So they got it fixed in just looking here at the ball possession and drive chart in the second just in the second half alone, the first one was a nine play drive which ended in a punt. Then it was a four play drive which ended in a punt. Then they got the football off a fumble at the Washington twenty five and then only went fifteen yards and had

to kick a field goal. Then you go into the fourth quarter, Cowboys three and out punt, next possession three and out punt. Then they get the ball at their own twenty two pick. Then the next possession three and out punt, and then they got the ball after a fumble by the defense, and then it was the they ran the clock out. Um, you know, five drives and a fourth quarter, three of them punts and a pit No, this is where the offense has got to go ahead

and fix these things. And maybe Washington I've watching it, but maybe New York is the excellent opponent to go ahead and start fixing these things. But that's what I look at, guys, when I just see what has to happen, is that got to be better about using the clock and generating points. When they get in the red zone, your defense is out here giving you the football back and you're only giving them three points. I mean, that's

that cut it yesterday. But if you're trying to talk about having any kind of playoff runnings, it's lasting longer than a game that those areas have got to improve. Yeah, you got to improve in your red zone, and like we talked about earlier, they got to improve on first down. I mean, when you can get in, you know, three four yards on first down, second down, get some more positive plays, it makes it a lot easier when you're

third and manageable. When you're in third and three, third and four, third and five, you can have a high percentage of third down conversions when it's that low and not manageable. But what we've seen in these past couple of games with the runna being where it's at those first down, those first down, those first down plays, they're not very positive. You may get one or two yards, then you're looking at the second along and then ends

up being a third and long. And that's when we've been suffering at these third down conversion races when it's over five yards or where it's over ten yards. So I feel like, if we can get better on first down, maybe find a way to get this run game going. I'm not sure how we do it. I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't know how we're gonna do it. But if we're able to find some way to get that going, I think it's proved dividends for this offense.

But right now they're they're staggering there, they're stuck in neutral right now, how do you get your run game going? Listen, I'm gonna say it like it like it's easy. I'm no offensive coordinator, but I can tell you one thing. When you're playing defense, misdirection and the illusion of the ball going one way and then you hand it off to somebody else that can help you. Like jet sweeps

can help you. When they're teams are running zone, they're running man and you get somebody jet sweep across the formation, it changes everything, right, So you're gonna have to get creative. You gonna have to get some of that show Nick Big type of stuff on to where you're kind of confusing the defense, making them check their reads, making them just slow down just a little bit to gear that

extra extra piece of space. And I haven't seen us do it since cde Lamb I think came out of the backfield, and I think you might to score a touchdown in that place, but I'm not sure. But we're gonna have to get creative with our ring game. All right. Sounds like Kellen Moore's got some work to do because special piece trying to get a head coaching job after the season national Football Leagues. So offense has got some issues and the quarterback's got to be a little bit better.

But right now Dan coint of the defense. It also bones the special teams units that got the Cowboys playing at a at a level that has nine wins and the three game lead in the NFC East. So all the victory Monday, let's not lose sight of that as we wrap up the shelves. Cowboys are in there. They are where they want to be. There's areas to fix, but right now they're where they want to be here. Listen, hey, and before we get off in here, Okay, because I know Church you wanted to say, Joe Burrow had a

hell of a game yesterday. Okay, he left his team. He left his team on the field, right, They left the field with the league and his and his defense couldn't get him, right, you know, he brought his team all the way back him with Jamarche single handedly got him in the game. He had three hundred and forty eight yards twenty four for thirty two something like that. He had a hell of a game and they just didn't win. Joe Herbert got to do. Congratulations him, But

what happened with Burrow? And then when it was zero zero, when the game was right there in the balance, he should have had to bring him back like that. Bro, Herbert, herbody ain't doing none of that. He's starting it from the jump. Man. You see what he's doing out there, and you know what you know. I don't gotta say, you know, her Birst speaks for itself. Who these first two seasons, he's definitely been better than Burrow. We'll see going forward. That's not true. Right now, Herbert has been

better these first two listeners. Herbert has been better. Let me tell you this. Do it and you might not agree with him, but I'm telling if that keep playing where he playing, that comeback play of the year would not be his. I'm just a million I meet it. Well. I told you that Joe Burrow was gonna be in the running forward and he's playing group. He's playing really good football right now. He has his team, the Cincinnati Beagles, in position to possibly go to the playoffs and win

a division. I mean that. You can't understate how how reporting that is for a guy playing for the Cincinnati Bagas. Yeah, okay, guys, I have an argument. We'll have to continue that next time and add in a little bit of Urban Meyer as well as we again cowboy talking. This has been the Players Lounge, brought to you by Hotels dot Com for Chris Beam, our producer Danny mccraig, Bury church On

Derwish Chrudswell Chat to y'all Tuesday, everybody. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.