Player's Lounge: Deflating Victory

by Hotels dot Com. I'm a longtime Cowboys reporter joined by two former Dallas Cowboys players, Danny McCray and Barry Church. Dak Prescott is out for the year. I supposed you get out of the hospital today. Scott of Goldnick pr Maybean with the team sent out a press release today saying that this sex the surgery was successful and they expect Dak to be released today. All right, gentlemen, let me just take your thoughts on what you felt when you saw Dak Prescott down on the turf at Jerry World.

Mccrat man, it was it was tough, man, it was heartbreaking, just because you know, I know, I know how people around the organzation feel about that. Really people around the world, and he's he's an ultimate leader. He's an ultimate of the right type of guy, the guy that people look up to, it does everything right. So just to see

something goes so wrong for him was very tough. But you know, listening to everybody you know, reach out to him and show how much confidence they have in him and believe that he will come back even better than before. You know, was kind of the civil line in that one. But I feel I feel terrible for Man because he was he was on track to do some special and then the contract year and all that stuff is in there, so it's it's a lot going into it, and he

has a lot going on through his mind. But praying for Man and hopefully speed to recover and come back better. Now, Yeah, man, I mean, I mean, you hate, you hate to see something like this happened, especially to a guy like like Dak Prescott. I mean on the field, he was a captain's he's the leader of this team. I mean, he's an unquestioned leader and a franchise leader of this team. And not only that, you hate to see it happened

to the guy off the field. I mean, we had the pleasure of meeting this guy and knowing him and getting to know him, and I mean, this guy is genuinely a great dude. Man like he eat, he never puts himself above anybody, and you just hate for something like this to happen for him. But um, like I said, this guy is strong, he's strong natured, and um, he'll be able to get through this, and I believe he'll be back. But for me, this, I mean, it just sucks just seeing him on the field like that. Man.

So for me, like Danny said, man, thoughts and prayers go out to him. But I know he'll be healthy, he'll come back and ball out. I've been lucky enough to cover a lot of cowboy teams Jimmy's last team here that ended up winning the Super Bowl, UH, covered a lot of guys. And watching Dak Prescott leave that football field with tears in his eyes, and the way people rallied around him and the c Jason Garrett on the other side with the Giants to see his concern,

I won't lie to you. I was sitting there and then my eyes watered up because it stinks that something like that happened to someone who's such a good person to someone who does everything right to someone who, in my opinion, has made Dallas foot war sports a better place. Um. Yeah, he went into a situation. It was very hard where he replaced Tony Romo Way, very loved football player, a guy who was popular and never did anything, never misstepped.

You know, he never said anything negative and not anything bad. I mean he helped. He just he just operates the right kind of way. And I just want to give you a quick, you know, glimpse into my you know, my experiences with Dak. I'm not going to sip you tell hey, Dak and I are buddies and friends. We are friendly. Um I said to him, I said, my kid loves you. You are you are her you know you're you're her favorite player, and she wants to meet you one day. He says, let's make that happen. And

he just looked at me again, okay, with sincerity. And I remember telling my kid, all right, Dak says that he'll meet you and you can get a picture with Dak. But you know, you gotta gotta get schoolwork done, you know. So she was wanting to get her schoolwork done, and unfortunately COVID COVID came around and we weren't able to do it. But you know, that's that kind of guy. He wants to be the leader of the franchise and he knows what goes along with it. He never gets

tired of it. And you guys are players, and you guys have you guys now have kids, and you know that's the most important thing in your life. And when someone you know wants to willingly go out of their way to do something that would have to do to try to make your kids smile, it just makes you think so much more of him. And Dak is that kind of guy. And I know several people who have those kind of stories about the kind of man he is. And that was why I watered my eyes watered up

because like, this is a good dude. Why does this have to happen? He just lost his brother this summer. He spoke openly about how he had reached a point of depression and went to seek help. And you know, we all know about the story of him losing his mother to can't And you just say, man, how many hits does a good dude like this have to take? So that was why I had tears in my eyes, man, because it was just like, damn not that. Yeah, it

was tough, man. And like you said, it just the just the people around that came to just in support of him. It just goes to show you how much he affected everyone, and like how how positively he affected everyone. I mean, like you said, Coach Garrett coming from the other sidelines to come and show his support, his whole team gathering around him, you know as he was getting

hoisted up into the cart. I mean, it just goes to show you the testament of the type of man he was, the type of character he has, and the leadership he has. And like I said, man, we all wishing him a speedy and in our healthy recovery. But man, yeah, this one hurt. Just one't hurt him. Man, this one definitely hurt. And and I want to come to the defense of all all NFL football players who have played

and will play on playing currently. This is why, you know, like unlike any other sport, unlike any other national league, where players always fight for, you know, the ability to get guaranteed contracts, ability to make their money when they can, because you know, you listen to the fans and they ask it, and they all ask why they and they moaned and complain when players trying to get all their money, and then you know, things like this happened. You know,

not just back is Alice Smith. You know in the previous year, it's Ryan Shazier in a year. You know when when when things like this happened, Like football players are asking for this for a specific reason, and anybody who looks at them and says they're being greedy or or they shouldn't be doing this so they need to go out there and perform blah blah blah blah blah.

Take a look at this and swallow that pill and just realize that you were wrong and get on the side of the players, because the harsh reality of the NFL, these things like this will happen. And even though it does, players still deserve to make their money, you know, for what they did on the field, all they gave to the game. So stop hating on the man. Let these guys make their money. Get one on the side of the players. I want to take what you said. Add

one more name to this. Teddy Bridgewater. Teddy Bridgewater was a Pro Bowl quarterback who had taken Minnesota to the playoffs and in a practice just a routine practice, Teddy goes down and Teddy tears up his leg. I mean he tears it up. That guys were there crying watching it. They all knew it was bad when it happened, ended up happening before the season. And despite Teddy Bridgewater being the right kind of guy and loved throughout the Minnesota organization,

you know what Minnesota did. They cut him. They cut him. He did not get made and then so Teddy Bridgewater had the long, the long road to come back and was a backup player for for several seasons. And yesterday he led the Carolina Panthers to a victory and he ended up getting himself a multi year contract this offseason

with Caroline after spending two years with the Saints. But I go back to that about how you better get what you can while you can't, because there's no guarantee that you're going to be healthy, and even more so, there's no there's no guarantee that your team will love you next year. And you're right, and look, I'm gonna throw another name in there, Tyrod Taylor. I mean, we don't know what's going on in that situation over in La.

I mean, it was a little bit different because it was the negligence of the team, But still, I mean, can they get away without giving him his money guaranteed? I mean the kid might not play the rest of the season. So I mean it's like you said, McCrae, it's a fight. And now people should realize why players go tooth and nail and fight for the most guaranteed money they can get because football's a violence sport and you never know what's going to happen on each and

every down. So like mcraie said, man, you gotta get your money. So Edward Or ESPN Guide, knowing and respected a long long time edward Or had tweeted out talking about, hey, Dak Prescott was offered a contract, turned it down. We know a lot of the issue had come between the years of the Cowboys wanting a five year deal, Prescott wanting a four year deal, and there were other people in the media who jumped on that that hey, this was all Dak, Dak took a risk. This is what

you do. How do you feel about that, gentleman, We're gonna we're gonna dive into it. Uh, I guess we're diving into it, man, um, Look, man, Um. Emotionally, you know, I feel like, yeah, man, you know he's he's spot tooth and nail. He's never missed a start. Um. You know, he's been the unquestioned leader of this team. So you know they need to go ahead and break him off

what he wants and give him his money. Um. But then again, you know, it harps back to the business side of things, and you gotta take your emotions out of it. And if I'm the Cowboys, I'm like, look, they weren't willing to pay him when he he was healthy, and when he was you know, putting on work. You know, why would they go ahead and then pay him what he wants after this injury. I mean, I know it sounds harsh, but it's I mean, it's the reality. It's

the reality of the business we're in. So for me, it's it's a tough one. It's a tough cookie. Um. But I can see them, you know, maybe franchise and him one more time, just to see where he's act, get a little bit more sample size, making sure he's come back healthy from this injury. But overall, I mean, it's it's a sticky situation and at the end of the day, it is a business, so I mean it's tough. It's a tough one, yeah, And then I think the only thing wrong with what Edwarder did was his timing.

Other than that, I mean what he said was true, and the truth is that that did gamble on itself. And sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. And we still don't know it's not gonna work out. He

just he just suffered a rusal injury. Um, things can still play out in his favor, depending on how the season goes and how Jerry Jones and then look several you know, he could still possibly give his forty mel we could go up there in theoked like straight guards or the argument that they knew he said, you know at the beginning of the show was hey, depending on how Andy Dunn plays, maybe possibly they could go look for somebody else to say that. You know, anybody could

well somebody another person with high caliber could carry his team. So, you know, he gambled on himself and it just didn't work out. Because right before this we were saying he gambled on himself and it worked out. So you know, that's just part of the game. So in his business, I don't think it would be any hard feelings between either one up. We all hope that the Dallas Cowboys do us right, but the gamble, you know, in this sense, as far as the injury wise, it just didn't pay

off like we hoped it would. So let me just reset in case some Cowboy fans don't understand. Dak Prescott, being a fourth round draft pick, had a four year contract, so last season was his fourth d It's the fourth year of his deal, the final year, and they could not come to a contract. The Cowboys thought they had a deal done in September, but Dak's agent, Todd France, basically he's like, nah, nah, after he started the three games, we're not going to do that deal. They did not

talk during the off season. We thought there'd be more conversation. There were not conversations. Todd Franz. Dak's agent had three players, okay, three of his clients were all on franchise tags. Not one of the three clients ended up signing a long term deal. So Dak Prescott came into this season on a one year deal for thirty one point four million dollars.

He did not get his deal done, and I ended up texting with a prominent NFL agent, a guy who's had another, you know, high profile client get franchise tagged and he and this is what he wrote me or read it. He says, that's why you get deals done, because you shouldn't be gambling with the players health. And to me, as I saw Dak Prescott and tears going off that car, I just said to myself, Todd France, did you do right by your client? You wanted a

four year deal, they wanted a five year deal. That's what it really came down to over years. Look, I think Dak is a tremendous football player, and I'm always going to be on the side of guys getting paid. But I'm also I've been in this thing long enough to know you do at some point in time, need to take what you can get. And take this bite. Because he's a quarterback. He'll get another bite of that apple, but make sure you put some of these guaranteed dollars

in his pocket. And yes, he's guaranteed thirty one million bucks, but if this contract was five years, one seventy five, it would have been a hell of a lot more than what he's got. And now the Cowboys have the leverage. Okay, Dak had the leverage and the way he was playing this year, he was going to have the leverage. But this injury now puts the leverage back into the Cowboys hands during a pandemic. I'm not a fair of France.

I gotta say, Man, the thought process and that to me is, you know, it's tough, right because what happens is Dak is a guy who has been through some stuff. He was going to get drafted. He ended up slipping to the fourth round. Things worked out for him, and Tony Romo got hurt, Like things besides this one, he said,

been working out. So him gambling on himself and believing that he can get stuff done and get what he deserves was in his mind as well, you know, as far as being like, hey, I'm gonna go out here and I know that I'm good, and I know we got weapons, and I know that I'm gonna have the best season that I can to get paid the highest.

So it's difficult to be like, hey, I'm gonna just take this, you know, knowing that in my mind I'm a competitor and I know I can go outperform that and get and get more money so you know, it is on his ageing a little bit. But I know back believed in himself just as much as his agent did as far as going out there and playing on that one year deal just so he can get everything that he's worth. And a lot of times when people gamble on themselves, it works out, so he had a

chance for it to work out. This is just one of those freak accidents that usually doesn't happen to a player in this type of situation, but it did just because it's the NFL. So he still had a chance to go out there and prove and get everything that he wanted. He still does. It just didn't work out this time. So it's tough. You know, maybe he should have took the money, maybe he shouldn't have, but he

wasn't baking on getting injured. He was baking on going out there and have a he of a season like he was. It's see Danny, And this is where I come back to as as as the agent and the representative. Okay, that's how I'm thinking of this, is that I'm asking my client to take two years in it. Hey man, I want you to gamble another year. Okay, We're gonna turn down this boatload of money again and go out here and play in a sport where you know, dudes get hurt. I'm thinking more of the player in the

long term. And I'm telling you there's a whole lot of people who are wondering because Todd France changed his agency. Now you think about this, Just just ask yourself this. You have three clients to a franchise tad, all three clients do not get long term deals, and you were

the agent, now switch agencies. Could there have been some play there where he was trying to make sure that maybe some commissions that will not be a different way and he was gonna make more money off of I'm hearing that one client in Denver that he had who was under the franchise tact that there were no meaningful conversations. And then of course we heard the report from James Slater of NFL Network that at the end they tried

to talk and then get anything done for Dak. I just I just have a problem that you know, where where was the contact? You know, you you got three dudes and nobody gets done. I mean, what are you doing as an agent? I'll just trying to figure Yeah, like what happens. If if if it ended up being like a Kirk Cousins deal where he ended up getting franchise and then ended up hitting big, then you know we'd be second guessing. Yeah, he's a smart guy. And at the end of the day, you know, Daks are

just like the rest of his clients. They're grown men. If they wanted, you know, to take to go ahead and take the deal, they can tell him, Look, man, I don't care what you're saying, thy France, go ahead and take this deal. So at the end of the day, you know, it was Dak's gamble, and he did gamble, and like Danny said, it just you know, it didn't work out the way he wished it would worked out this time. But like now, I mean, he bet on

himself and that's the risk you take sometimes. Okay, Church, Now, now I come back to this, and this is where you know, I'm still having you know, I'm still trying to figure out, you know, exactly what happened here. This is where COVID gets in the way where you can't really get some of that conversations with people one on one. But but just the fact that there was a conversation late okay late, So they were talking as the deadline, you know it was it was approaching three o'clock, but

they ran out of time to get something done. Steven's acknowledged a little bit of that. So if you're trying to get something done here in the last moment, that tells me that there was a deal to be made and it didn't get done. Which that's where I go back to the agent. If why weren't you talking to these guys July first? You know, where's where's your list?

You know? I mean to me, if you're probably an agent, you know, where's the logs of Hey, I talked to Steve and we or talked to you that you were trying to get something done for the client. I mean, if you're trying to sell your house and the real to talk to you at all about what's going on and you don't have an understanding, Hey, how are you going through this process? I mean, that's for me. That's when people represent me. I want to know what were

you doing? What kind of conversations because these are negotiations, they're back and forth types of things, and do we know what happened? There were no convert the conversations because

I'm still believe that on his four year deal. Oh yes, yes, the whole thing about the conversation that has been reported several times, and the same thing about Todd France with one of his clients in Denver, the same thing where this this is a guy who wasn't picking up the phone engaging with people about trying to get something done with his guys here. So now I'm talking about that, I'm talking about that with his own agent, um to my knowledge, yes, yes, with the agent, but I'm talking

about the agent with the club. That's what I'm talking about. Got you So you're saying the agent wasn't reaching out to the club to get something done. He was just waiting on them to come and come and offer something, right, and and and it did that with at least two of the three guys that I know, at least two of the three, and that took What do you do? What are you doing? If that's the case. If yeah, if that's the case, then that that's bad agents. That's

bad agent work. If that's the case where he's not, you know, reaching out trying to get the best deal possible. I mean, if if that's the case, then yeah, I mean, I'm I'm I'm pissed at the agent. You know what. I'm like, Man, you don't have my best interest if you're not going out there fighting for me and you're just waiting on a call. So I mean, if that's the case, then I definitely would agree with you that Todd France was. You know, he didn't play as he

didn't have Dak's best interests at hard. I gotta I gotta play that. I gotta play devil. I came here man, because because even in that case, we just Dak is talking to his agent. Dak understands, and I believe that is a smart guy. Dak has been around the organization. He has some idea of what's going on, and to some sense, like everybody was saying, he probably felt played

that they wouldn't give him what he wanted. And once they came back but the five year deal for the fourth time time, he was like, you know what, I don't go here to do what I gotta do. Blah blah blah. I'm just having a hard time finding it. I find it hard to believe that they ran out of time on the deal making a deal that Dak wanted with four years I feel like he probably coming back with the same five year deal and it was like, bro,

y'all still have come back with the same stuff. That's what I guess that all I'm going by is the James Slater report that um, Stephen and Dak You know that those two guys talked and then they were trying to work something out at the end and ran out of time. Those those particulars I don't know, but but this is just this is why I say why I

hate the COVID thing. If we can't get near the players so that that opportunity to go in the locker room where you know, you have the side conversations with guys, if you try to get the okay hey off the record, tell me exactly you know? Is this report right? What happened here? And even Stephen, you know, you can't get next to Stephen to say okay, hey, look guide me. So I have an understanding. I'm hearing this. I'm hearing that there was a conversation at the end here. Is

that true. I'm hearing that there was zero contact in the month of July. Is this true? You know, those kind of things that you'd like to get done at the reporter that you you know, you're it's it's tough right now that not to be able to kind of do the job as one. But for me, the fact that it's been reported they were trying to get something done at the end tells me that there was some there was some ground that was going to be met.

And what have we seen with the cowboys recently. Go back to Mary Cooper, go back to Tank Loans, go back to Zeke, go back to Zach. They folded every time. So a part of me is thinking, here, cowboys about to fold and give them what they wanted, but they ran out of time. And that's why I go back to the agent and just say, hey, you got three duds,

and all three dudes don't get done. And I'm hearing from two different organizations through my sources that this guy, the agent wasn't exactly on the phone engaging with dudes trying to get something done. And oh, by the way, he moves on to a new agency where apparently, I guess it's going to be a lot more favors for him to get deals done. So are you learning the jobs off the hook here? Because literally we've been talking

about getting paid for like two years along. No no no no no no no no no no. Understand it. My issue is, as I and I go back to what I said earlier, I'm watching the player lead the field, and I'm thinking that the agent didn't take care and make sure the client got the money. That's what I'm

looking at now. As far as the Jones' go, we can have a whole another conversation about that, because I've said on the record before here they should have got that deal done that training camp of his final that that final year, that they should have you know what they were asking for thirty or thirty one, should have gave it to him, should have basically said, you know, we're gonna give you exactly what Goffin Wentz got. You can have what they're at because we feel you are

right there with those guys. So I just I don't want to hear that about the last minute they called you lying around out of time time. By the way, we're late for a break here. Let's let's get a break here, Let's let's get a break here. Also more interest for the Cowboys on a victory Monday that feels very hollow. This is the players last batch you by Hotels dot com on Dallas Cowboys dot com rad Hey, they're Cowboys fans with Tight Cleaners at home pickup and delivery.

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I'm Jay Nobachik, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day, I was the guy who always got the tough yards and that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Deer three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yardwork I need to do, even the tough yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand, John Deer has the equipment that's just right for you, Visit a John Dear dealer today and run with us.

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More to the players loud, All Right, the Cowboys. You're back at and T Stadium on Monday night to take on the Arizona Cardinals. A limited number of tickets starting at eighty nine dollars are available now get yours today at Dallas Cowboys dot Com slash tickets. Kyler Murray coming back to town here. He was a star at Alan High School, went on to win the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma after he transferred from Texas a n M. We are in our SWBC Mortgage Virtual home studios on we scuts.

Longtime Cowboys reporter. Former Cowboys players Danny McCray and Barry Church are alongside me. Dak Prescott gonna miss the season after a right ankle compound fracture and dislocation. More Cowboys injuries. Defensive tackle starter Tristan Hill is suspected to have an ACL and you start looking at the whole list of things. Here you got Tyrn Smith, left tackle out for the year with the neck. Right tackle l Collins out. Gerald McCoy the other stary defensive tackle. He is out for

the year. They ended up cutting him. Linebacker Sean Lee's yet to play a snap this season. Linebacker Lake Vanderesh played one game, got a broken collar bone. He still yet to play. Starting center Joe Looney out with a sprain knee, so he's missing three weeks. Here, fellas, have you ever seen this kind of rash of injuries with the Cowboys. Nah, I mean I haven't seen overhere near this type of injury injury, but a team like this, I mean, look, I man, do we give coach McCarthy.

We talk a lot on here about him, but and rightfully so, but I mean, I know he didn't sign up for this. I mean, you're losing both the offensive tackles. You kill your quarterback number one. I mean, we have so many injuries on the defensive side of the ball, in the secondary as well. I mean, I've never seen

a rash of injuries like this. I mean, good thing, we're in the worst division in football right now, where maybe even a seven and nineteen might make it out to make it out the NFC East because this injury rash, I mean, it's something that I've never seen before. Yes, same here and and I think we may have a few more than some teams around the league. But the

league in general was facing a bunch of injuries. If you look at San France, they lost a bunch of guys like it's acls, it's achilles, it's high angle springs, it's hamstrings, it's it's guys all around the league. And I think Honestly, I gotta say that I think we've done a decent job, especially with our old line of handling these injuries and shoveling around and making some of these things work to where it's it's not a glaring thing.

But at some point it's got to stop or we're looking at really calling a bunch of guys off the streets to fill in some of these spots. Man, because the ones that that really hurts you on the season Indians, right, because you can be in my hour for three weeks to come back when you get those season ending injuries like we haven't left right tackle a d tackle. You know those things are hard to come back from. Okay, I'm gonna ask you the question that I asked um

on my Sunday night TV show last night. And we've already done this once and I feel like we got to go ahead and do it again. Let's readdress the Cowboys record. Okay, So, so I went from I went from eleven and five, and checking my notes on the readjustment, I went down to eight day Church, you went down to eight. Nay, Danny, Danny mak, you went you went down to seven and nine. Let's readjust that one more time. Okay, I'll go first. I'm gonna take that eight, Nate down

to six and ten, maybe five left. Oh. I mean, look, you just lost Tristan Hill. This defense was bad yesterday against the Giants thirty seven thirty four, So you don't have Tristan Hill. Gerald mccourse hold John Terry Poe hasn't done a whole lot. Antoine Woods. I mean he was a starter a little bit last year. But I'm sorry. You tell me how we're sitting around there at two wins. Okay, you think about it, they won time game, They've won two games, and you're like, wow, you're lucky to win

those two games. So I'm sitting here at six and ten, five to eleven. I'm sorry you guys. What record you got here? Now? Church? How to readjust on a readjust? Man? I know I said eight and eight, but look, man, I'm I'm you know, I'm still feeling my my optimistic man. I'm so, I'm gonna go ahead, and I'm only knocking one game. Man, I'm gonna say they go seven and nine. Man, I don't know, I'm gonna say they go seven and nine. Man,

I say they go seven and nine. I just you know, look this past game, granted it was against the New York Giants, and we know all know how hapless they are, but I felt like this defense had a little bit something going. I mean, it wasn't great, it wasn't great, but I felt like this defense started to roll just a little bit. We started to get something from d Law and those boys. So for me, I'm gonna only

knock him one gang. I feel like Andy Dalton might be able to come in here and do a little something. So you know, I'm gonna have my reservations, but I'm

gonna go seven and nine. Yeah, I'm listening. I'm not changing mind specifically because the defense was never you know, it was never relevant in my picks um and the reason and even with dak Out the reason I'm keeping seven to nuts because it's because one of the views that I got from from the side watch it on TV was an aha moment of if we rang the ball,

I think that we can actually win some games. I saw killing it and Mike McCarthy Alder slapping hands like, yeah, we figured it out like that, like they cracked a secret code that that we all knew, And I'm like all right, listen, it moving forward, especially when Andy DAWs our quarterback. If we focus our offense, I'm taking nineteen out of the picture because I don't know what the hick is going on him. If we yea offense on twenty one, because now for it's gone, so you gotta

take four to nineteen. I focused on twenty one. Like we figured out the second quarter of this game, we have a shot to win some games. And the only thing that changed for me is I said we're gonna split with Philly. I still believe the same. So that's what I'm saying with nights seven or nine. Look, look real quick, real quick, let's get back. Let's rewind it a little bit. I heard you talk about nineteen. What's going on with nineteen? I mean, is he coming up

on these injury reports? I mean he only played what like sixty percent of the snaps last last week against New York. Like, I'm at a loss right now, I'm going wrong, I gotta say, because remember Churchill, we was asking who was gonna be the best receiver on the roster, and somebody was talking about CD Lamb and I was like, yeah, all right, it's gotta be cool goodness, graciuss are wrong. Look at this focus is specifically like Cede Lamb is the guy. He runs the jet sleeps. I think Amari

got one. But other than that, he runs the screens, the jet sleeps, he runs all the seed routs. He does everything. He's the perfect urn. This offense focuses around well now twenty one eighty eight. I mean, you're you're right. I would have never assumed he. I mean, and the guys out there making like spect He's doing all the dirty work as well as making all the spectacular plays. I mean this dude blocking people on runs. He's going

over the middle taking shots. I knew it. I don't say this a lot, but man, man, you was right. You was right. Man. Her best receiver is making a hundred nigga. Baby, what do I signed up for that? What do I signed up for that? Gig I mean spectacular plays. C d Land the old Person's invisible water Dalton shows probably making both plays and coo, what are we doing? Then they said he played like shes not even on the field as the number more receiver. I

don't get it. Got Cedric Wilson throwing touchdowns and said masic man Noah Brown, I mean, what's going on? But everybody, hey, over there, you know over there, like, yeah, I raked up pretty good. He had one target in the first half. I believe I'm sitting there back to the game here about fancy team like this has got to be This is nuts. Everybody getting to shine, exceling to do that is making a hunt. It don't make no sense. Make make it makes sense that please make it. So that's

why you tried to trade them to me? Huh okay, here's what that's what does make sense is throughout this season, five games into it, there have been many times where we've questioned the usage of players that they've written big checks to. Some weeks we're worried about you know, they've forgotten about Ezekiel Elliott and you yesterday we were worried again about Amari Cooper. We've worried about where's you know,

where's Tank Lawrence. I'm still trying to find it. Tyrone Crawford, Um where you're like, you gotta check man, You're gonna show up and do something. Jalen Smith, I mean this is I mean, when you start thinking about this team, there's some dudes who got checks and you're just like, wow, man, um where you at? And so so yesterday for you guys, you know it was Coop who was you know, getting it getting you know, getting that like, hey, wh where are you at? You know who's on the milk cart.

I mean we might as well passed the milk cart around each week and just put different photos on it because missing man who's been giving lots of money. Um, it's happened. And you know, I don't I don't get it. I don't get it. And I was sitting here watching the game like you guys. Oh, so let's see what happens when you give twenty one to football, things can happen.

That the shocking thing for me and all of this when I started, you know, when I look at Ezekiel Elliot and how he's been used as Kellen Moore was on the team, That's what I don't get. You've seen what this guy can do. You've been a part of this team as a player and a coach. You know what twenty one can do. Why aren't you utilizing him more? Which is one of my frustrations with Jason Garrett. It's about the usage of twenty one because Jason played with

twenty two Emmitt Smith. So you see what a dominant running back can be and do and how much easier it makes your makes life for your football team. If people aren't talking about this, but you know, the Cowboys all the time of possession again again, and when they win on those long drives, what do they do. They kept the defense off the field. If you want to help this defense, keep them off the field. They're not good enough to be on the field for thirty plus minutes.

And what do we see yesterday? They're on the field a long time and here's another football team that's out there, you know, giving them the business. Luckily, the Giants are a bad team that makes mistakes. They had touchdowns coming off the board, and so the Cowboys were helped. I mean that special teams, My gosh, what in the world were they doing? You know, let's take a break. Let's take a break. I want to get into the special teams. And you know, if you want to be mad at,

you would be mad at Amari Cooper. Can we be mad at John Fossil? Let's do that. Next players lines brought to you by Hotels dot Com right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio since eighteen sixty five. Stats and hats are American made with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and Team pride too, You can by purchasing your own Stetson. You can look just like how the flag guys do on field at

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you go you got to wear a mask. Keep social distance here, be prepared for Castle's transactions, and please be aware of all safe stadium policies prior to arriving at AT and T Stadium. Visits Dallas Cowboys dot com slash safe stadium for details. You are in the playing plants on a victory Monday. That feels very hollow because Cowboys starting quarterback Dak Prescott is going to miss the rest of the season. Andy Dalton takes over a great signing

by the team. I thought in the offseason he now has the ability to really make some incentives here because a part of his contract was playing fifty percent of the snaps. If Andy stays healthy, he will get y'all gone sixty five seventy percent of the snaps the rest of the season. So I've been a fan of Andy, covered him when he was a quarterback at TCU. Let's go back into that win yesterday and fellas very church. Danny McCray, you guys major bones with the Cowboys, is

you know making the team through special teams? John Fossil was supposed to come here and be an upgrade over keithrow Quinn. The Giants had a touchdown call back on special teams because of former Cowboy Cam Irving. I thought a little tiki tacky, but luckily for the Cowboys who didn't work. Another time, the Cowboys are got the Giants lined up for a punt, but then they've got twelve men on the field, so now the punt becomes a

field bowl, which they convert. And I'm just sitting there myself saying, I thought John Fossile was supposed to make it better. I don't feel like John Fossil's living up the old this hype that we gave him. Mccraig, if you listen, and you being honest with yourself and all the Cowboys fans and even even in the the organizationships, we look worse those special teams than we did last year. Um, you think about it this way, we lose that game

because of special teams. If that tiki tach, you know, a legal shift, they snapped the balls too early, doesn't happen. And this is this has been a common theme for the entire season. You can always depend on special teams to come out there and make a name for themselves in a bad way throughout the the first quarter of the season and now moving into the second quarter of

the season. And it's unfortunate because you know, every we were feeling good and you know, and this is one of those hollow Mondays because of that, but it should really be a hollow Monday as well, because we're all feeling out happy because we went out there and beat the windless Giants and kind of lucky. So I mean, I mean, I'm not I'm not. I'm not really understanding

and knew you were unfair to the defense. They only gave up twenty seven because we threw a pick six, So you know we're gonna say something good about many only give up twenty seven this week. That's that's true. So go ahead, go ahead, Which team, which which phase of the game is worse than last year? The defense or the special teams? Can they both be? Yeah, because they are? They both are. I mean, what in the hell is going on over there with the special teams?

I mean, like you said, we were supposed to have one of the best Cats in the game coming down here and supposed to get our unit right and right now, you know, I don't see a difference between him or Keith o Quinn. I mean, we gotta have the worst kickoff return unit in the NFL right now. I mean, the average start is like I feel like every time he returns the ball I'm talking about Tony Pollard. I feel like we only get to the fifteen yard line

and it's like, I don't know what's going on. I don't know if guys don't understand the blocking schemes he's putting in there or what. But I mean, I don't see any difference between what they did last year and what they're doing this year. And then just the mistakes just keep on piling up. I mean, if on that fake field goal, how do you not notice a guy over there just chilling. I mean, you're supposed to be

looking over there to your job. And if there's a and if there's only ten cats in the middle of the field for this kickoff, one of those edges is gonna be soft, so you should notice that, Like, hold on, there's not a wing over here protecting this. Let me look over there, hole Ingram's wide open over there. Like it's just little things like that that it has to go back to coaching. I mean, it's just I mean, it's not like we're questioning, you know, these guys want

to or anything like that. They're just doing dumb mistakes. So I gotta say it's on coaching, and right now, Like I said before, I don't see the difference between Phil being and or not filming Fossil and Keith O'Quinn. It's perplexing to you right now. You do Church, you do. It's worse. We we got on We got on Cam. I think it's a block punt, and honestly, those type of things happen, you know, throughout the season sometimes like punts get block. I'm giving up a block punt and

it wasn't coaching. I went out there as a player and I messed up, all right, But we got on them for table and often doing a fair catch at the wrong time. They didn't give up a touchdown, all right. They weren't out there, you know, messing up the way that this team is messing up this year. I'm talking about. We are out there almost losing games and giving up touchdown,

giving up those type of big plays. All right. I will take what Keith O'Quinn was doing with the player error on the block punt and the fair kids are still giving us a chance to go out down there or versus giving up touchdown, giving giving up defense the ball on the one yard line on kickoff return. Having the worst one of the worst starting starting field positions in the league. I would take that. I will take the trade off so as I ain't listening to YouTube.

Just talk about special teams in defense just right now in the second, you guys both think that the Cowboys have five more wins than them this they got eleven games left, So you're basically thinking with half their games with this Rudy Pooh, special teams and a defense these players don't believe in. Right now, do you think they go with basic quick? When you've got that? When when you've got a Baltimore coming here, you got Pittsburgh, I mean,

you gotta go to Baltimore. You've got Pittsburgh. Who's coming here? You got to play a Cincinnati team that I don't know if you guys know or not, but but that that that Joe Burrow kids got guts and he's played very well and they haven't protected him. But but then that team you all they had, um, they should have been Cleshian, they should have been Cleveland. Didn't happen. You got Philadelphia? Oh okay, okay, but what you still got? All right? Because look like you said you still got

what Philadelphia twice? You still got New York one more time and you got Washington twice. That's it. That could be an easily five wins. You take the NFC East and you're going in there seven to nine my prediction, that's all it's gonna happen. And I'm still and I'm still count Cincinnati is Listen. Baltimore was a loss already, Pittsburgh was the teams that you name, I already had them losing against so so so that that didn't change for me. I still think we didn't go out there

in d Cincinnati. Listen, only if for the rest of the season, killing Moore decides that we are going to focus our offense on running the ball, because I think that when we do that, we have an advantage over all those teams that I have us count winning against to make us go seven or nine. Now the other teast we got issue. You put a Quali part and you said if if but I saw it. I saw it. Do it. But can't we cattle if we're Kellen Moore. I don't think I'm not ready. I'm not ready to

say I'm just abow to run the ball. You think it was a game, I'm telling I want to listen to CB I'm asked CB to find a clip of what happened once we scored with Zeke running the ball. I think it was to take yard score. The look in McCarthy and Kelly Moore's eyes, it was a true a ha moment. I text y'all and I said, I think Jared called down in there saying, let me tell y'all something, if we don't start giving twenty one the ball, he's gonna be some smoking the city. And then we

saw it. Because you think about it now, we said we lost the time of possession. I'm taking it all because of the first half, because the first round he came down did the same thing. Zeke was not a feature part of the thing, and I think I think he didn't become a feature part of it into the second half. We so we slept through the first half without giving Zeke the ball, and I think now that second half gave us a good picture for what we're going to see for the rest of the season, especially

any Doin's quarterback. Okay, were clearly we've got a lot to chop up and keep going. So we've got content and we got topics and content. Good Lord to keep you going the rest of the week. And before we get out of here, um, shout out to Mickey Spagnola and his fighting Missouri Tigers for getting themselves. Mickey never gets to celebrate on these podcasts because it's football. Do you know the SEC win from man Boy so good, good on Mickey, Good on him. He'll never see another

win like that again. You know, it happened. Sometimes it happens when you put so many guys in the league and you lose. You know, Joe Burrow is just the Jerson. All these guys who were stars of the league right now based on the first quarter. So sometimes that stuff happens. You know. Queen Patrick, Queen had a picture said they don't forget about him. It's it's so many it's me. I can't name them all you know in the town that we have loved. But we lost a lot and

we'll be back. I'm not worried, not worried. I can to celebrate that. That's the championship for a year. Look, and since we're doing shout outs, man, shout out to my boy White Lightning aka Jeff heath Man. Y'alla if y'all ain't see it yesterday, y'all missed out. My boy came from the rafters looking like sting from www. Whatever the wrestling thing was. He picked it off, took it almost to the house. Man, shout out to my boy

Jeff heath Man. He didn't get it up love here, but he's doing his work in Las Vegas right now, by the way, and yeah, he appreciate that he was on the field, all says on the field US one hundred Jeff heath with the Vegas Raiders and a whole lot of Cowboys fans over him an apology. They ran that man down while he was wearing the silver and blue. Hey, that's today's show. We appreciate you tuning into the Players Lounge,

brought to you by Hotels dot Com. That's Jamie the Craigberry Church, former Cowboys players under we scrugs, longtime Cowboys reporter. As always, we appreciate. We thank our guy Chris Beam who produces this show and it barely gets a bathroom break when he does it, but we appreciate it. When we back to Bart two thirtis sent a time right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club