Player's Lounge: Final Thoughts on #ATLvsDAL

on NBC against Tampa Bay. So hopefully the Cowboys can get a little taste of winning from the Dallas Stars. But fellas, let's start off the show here with the fact I'm at Defcon five right now with this offensive lune. Tyrann Smith did not practice yesterday. Tyren Smith has a neck injury that popped up during individual drills this week. According to Mike McCarthy, So, Danny McCray, Ferry Church, former Dallas Cowboy's Safeties, I'm merely new, he scrugs. Man, I'm worried.

I'm a death coming five here. You could have two tackles not playing on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons. Lell Collins is not gonna be in the game. He's already on injured reserve. Talk me off the ledge, man, take me off the ledge. I'm worried. Yeah, man, this I'll go ahead, go ahead, MC, go ahead. Yeah, I can't talk y'all this ledge. Knew you might want to go

ahead and jump. Uh. I just not just have like flashbacks and I keep seeing the vision of what happened last time Tyra was not in the game against Atlanta, and I can't get rid of it. And I don't think the coaching staff matters. It's a player thing, right, So no matter who you put out there, we already got somebody being focused on on the right tackle. Who

the defensive focusing it all? Now you're telling me that the defensive coordinator, and actually the head coach who was a defensive guy in Atlanta gets to say, we have two subs in both tackles on both sides. This must be Christmas. So I'm nervous, man, I'm nervous. I need him to play. But you know, just like LV those neck injuries and him in the bad back, that stuff is rolling together and those are the things that are very, very harmful to the careers of NFL players. Yeah, man,

I'm worried. I'm worried just as much as you guys. I mean deathcon five, I mean this if he does if Tyren Smith does not play in this game, I mean, this could be one of the most monumental injuries ever. I mean, look, Dani already pointed out, you got Brandon Still at the right tackle spot filling in for Lyle Collins. Now, he was an undrafted rookie free agent. He had his first NFL start last week versus the Rams, and you know,

he didn't perform very well. But you know, I see as time goes on, he can only get better from there. But the only problem is, I don't know if we have time to wait for him to develop into that right tackle spot. We go to the interiors part of the line. You know, Zach Martin, I feel like he graded out low last week, But I don't see you two bad games coming from him back to back. He's just too good of a player. So that brings me to Joe Looney and Connor Williams, who both struggle mighty

League against Aaron Donald. Now, Aaron Donald, you know, the defensive player of the year, most officive linemen are gonna struggle with him. But this week, I mean, they don't have a scrub over. They're in Grady Jared. I mean, this guy is a perennial pass rusher and can give them them, give them problems and force pressure on them. So they're gonna have to step up their game on the inside. And that what brings me to Tyron Smith.

The left tackle. This is one of the premier positions on the officive line, usually reserved for your best offensive linemen. It's the blind side, the guy that's protecting the quarterback as he's going through his progressions. And we have already heard Dak Prescott this week talking about he wants to take more shots downfield. But I just don't understand how they're going to be able to do that if Tyron Smith's not in there. This is a guy that's protecting

your blind spot. I don't see Dak Prescott bring too comfortable going through his progression and waiting for that deep rot to develop. So this injury right here, I mean it could be monumental on two phases. It can affect a passing game and it can affect how Zeke Elliott is controlled in the run game. This is Deacon five. I'm worried for the boys, Nili, I'm worried. Players Lounge brought to you by Hotels dot Com. All right, McCray, we're talking about looking at at a possibility of having

Terrance Steel started right tackle again. Maybe they flipped it up, but I'm assuming he'll go to right You've got Brandon Knight, who made one start last year for the Cowboys that was at right tackle. Then Alex Light was signed on Tuesday, and that's a guy that Mike McCarthy has worked with right here, But you're talking about three your top three tackles missing action against the Atlanta Falcons because Cam Irving is also on injured reserve, So Tyrant Smith possibly couldn't

be there. It could possibly not be there. Jerry Jones said, will be a game time decision. Mike McCarthy was very vague about what was gonna happen. He said he still need quote Uno more information, but we know Collins and Irving will not be there. Tat McKinley is one of the Falcons pass rushers here, a guy in the Cowboys looked at trying to possibly draft, but they couldn't because Atlanta traded up, got him in. The Cowboys got stuck with Taco Charlton and passed on t J. Watt. But

that's another conversation. And they've also got one of one of buried Churches old teammates from Jacksonville and Dante Fowler Junior. So these are the guys that you've got to be looking at if you're the Cowboys, who can come off this edge here and look if you're attacking, if you're a Fowler, you're looking your chops here. If you get to go against these young and inexperienced guys. Listen, you you damn bad, bad bad Listen. I'm rusty. I'm rusty.

I miss yesterday, my bad go ahead, go ahead and go ahead forty two. Oh no, no, it's all good. I was just gonna say, like, um, you know, Dante Fouler, I was a teammate of this for two years down in Jacksonville, and this, I'm like gonna said, Grady Jared was no scrub. This guy got paid for a reason. I'm mean to me, he's just as athletic as a tank Lawrence, much faster. He just doesn't have that that perennial pass rush moves that tank Lawrence has, but he's

a little scrub out there. So whoever they do put out there on that right tackle spot, um, I believe it'll be still it's not going to have an easy day in the park. So all this offensive line they need to step their game up because they're not going against any scrubs out there. And if they want to implement this offense to where they where they needed to beat, you know, deep shots, play action, all that stuff, they're gonna need to secure this front line and it's gonna

be hard to do it without Tyren Smith. Listen. And to add on to that, I just remember, and this is for news and some of the other people who you know me also, when we did not protect um, you know Tyren Smith's replacement was it, I forget the same. But when last time Chad Green we did we did. We didn't protect them, and we got after the game, everybody was like, hey man, the play calling right, We should have put somebody out there to help them this

and that. It's the same situation this week, except it was the same since watching last week is what we didn't see it. So if you don't find a way to run some plays to slow down those pass rushers, create some misdirection to open up some time and take

a little pressure off those tackles. If we don't see that, and we're going back to whin, it's McCarthy going to snatch the play sheet, right, because if we don't see that, I'm putting it on McCarthy and Kelly Moore if we go if we go out there and we somehow have to watch the game and we're like, man the right and left left tackle or struggling, and why aren't they getting them any help? This isn't just on Keller Moore. This is on the entire offensive coaching staff, including Mike McCarthy.

So we need to see specifically since we know that these are the weaknesses of our team. If these two tackles don't play well, if Turing doesn't playing, we already have a replacement that right, The game plan should be something to create misdirection and slow these guys down so they can negate that pass rushing to open up some

shots down the field. All Right, a name we haven't mentioned from the coaching staff that Cowboy fans need to go ahead and remember if you don't already, the name is Joe Filbin Joe Philbin, former coach to the Miami Dolphins, longtime offensive line coach from Mike McCarthy with the Packers. He is the Cowboys offensive line coach. Joe Philbin has got his work cut out and this needs to be his finest hour here for the Cowboys because McCarthy would not give away if they were going to go with

some different types of combinations. Um if I if Tyrn was out meaning okay, could could they decide to flip Carter Williams at the tackles about he didn't want to go and give anything away here. So to me, this is gonna be really interesting on how Joe Philbin gets these guys ready to go, because this is truly what your old line coach has to do. Because also within trying to set the five guys, if Smith is out, you've also got to think about what if someone gets hurt?

You know, I, if Connor Williams is hurting the game, okay, who's who's gonna go there? Um? You know if if Steele has hurting the game. Maybe these are things you have to think about and and go to and also how you change who's on special team. So there's a big challenge here for this team. And that's why I say I'm at Defcon five right now, worried about this offensive line, an area we all thought was going to be good coming into Sunday's critical game against Atlantic. Because

you don't want to follow over two. It's the first Cowboys home game of the year. Mc craig, Who I mean, I'm straight up worried, man. I am worried because you should be. This could get ugly if if they don't do it right. And I think you were on point talking about all right, you you can't. You can't sit around here and run your regular offense. You got to make the adjustments. That's what coaching is is trying to

cover up your awards here. So you may need some three three step drops, It may be some bubble screens that you got to go ahead and get this ball out quick. Do not let Tach McKinley and let Fowler junior mccraig get going in. If listen, if I don't see a zone read with Zeke and back to where you're putting the defensive ends in a in a tough situation and then playing off that with play action and shots down the field. If they don't set it up with that based on what we have at tackle, then

I don't. I have no idea what we're doing because it's not that many ways to slow him down. But anytime you can get somebody thinking and overthinking on the football field, that is great for you. Right. So we just need to find a way to get that done or it's gonna be a long game, which really will be a short game because we'll get blown out. Yeah, I think they just gotta kind of take a page from the Rams playbook. Like last week. I mean, we talked to Will and he told us the recipe it was.

They turned it into a lateral game instead of a vertical game. Now, we know we want to see more shots from Dak Prescott, but with this package, this patchwork offensive line, if Turnsmith is out, we know they're gonna bring from within. As what Will said the other day,

we're gonna promote from within. So with this patchwork offensive line, I mean, you're gonna have to turn it into a latical game, bub bubble screens, wide receiver screens, quick game, three step drop, and they're gonna have to get it out of his hands fast. Because I just don't see that offtive line holding up well against those pass rushers before it land. Did you guys watch the Cleveland game last night. Yeah, and not to be on Joe Burrow,

but the Cincinnati offensive line is not good. No, but Cincinnati did find a way to get the ball down the field. So it's not impossible. So I don't want us to go into the game and say, hey man, we can't do it, because you know, X, y Z teams are able to get it done. They're able to coach this stuff up, and they're able to find a way to push the ball down the field and score

some points. All right, So it's not it's not an impossible task, and it's something that we should be able to do and the offensive coaching staff should be able to figure out how to get this done in the game. I tell McCraw here a loud and clear through these bows headphones. I like where your head's at. I remember last year when the forty nine ers lost their two offensive tackles for a game, and it might have been two games that they lost both starting tackles, and Kyle

Shanahan ended up winning both of those games. I know he won one of them. For sure, but I believe he was two weeks he had to do it in the row, and he got he got through it, and of course we know the Niners ended up playing in the super Bowl. It was these injuries had happened earlier in the year, so you are on point. This is where the coaching comes in. And the way Jason Garrett had done it, it was, Hey, look, we're gonna be who we are and we're not gonna give guys help.

I want Mike McCarthy to give guys help here. And so whether it's Blake Bell or it's the rookie um Sean mckinn from Michigan, who's a bet, who's their best blocking tight end, put somebody out there and help chip um do help these guys. You just cannot leave these tackles out here by themselves. You're gonna have to help him here. I just feel like that has to be. It. M not sure what the game plan is gonna be, but to me, just what I'm you know what we

know of right now. If you're talking about two tackles making their second NFL starts, you gotta protect him, man, You gotta protect your You got to I mean You're completely right. Whether it be Ezekiel coming out of the backfield getting a little shoulder chipping there, or if it's one of the tight ends chipping on their way out to their route. You can't let these guys go on there on an island by themselves. One. I mean, I don't see their confidence being that high to begin with.

If they're on social media, they're looking at this saying, oh man, everybody in their mom thinks we're gonna give up one hundred sacks out there. So their confidence can't be that high. And but to get it to that, to get it to the point where they're successful out there, you gotta help them out. You can't leave them on an island we saw like Danny, Like Danny pointed out earlier, when you leave a guy on an island like Chads Green,

bad things can happen. And we do not want to sit there and watch Dak Prescott take a five step drop and get smacked in the back of the head. We do not want to see that over and over again. We need to show up this off the line, whether it be chipping, whether it be quick step, something has to happen. But I'm sure these coaches with championship pedigree will figure out something to get ready for this Atlanta game.

All right, McCray, you brought up a point here talking about the offense that I want to come back to in this and it leads into what Church and I were discussing yesterday is the offense is supposed to be the best part of this team. Their job is to also protect this defense by trying to figure out a

way to hold onto the ball longer. What we've seen from the Cowboys the past two seasons is if you leave this defense on the football field for thirty minutes or more, you usually are going to have a problem here. So they also within these having these two possibly having to start, these two young tackles, how can they run the football and control the clock? Mcray, because they got to protect this DP. The more shots that Mattie Ice has on the football field with this offense, the worst

off is going to be for the Cowboys. Listen, listen. Jerry Jones has been saying for years that Dak has the potential to be just like Russell Wilson, just like Cam as far as being able to run zone reads and create a new, a new type of thing in the ring game. So use it like this. This is a way for them to be able to to add another element to the run game. Add back in there as another runner. I'm not saying run the power with him,

but get them some runs out there. Make the teams respect him as a runner, and that'll help you in every other aspect of the game, right because if you're worried about the quarterback being able to take it from Zeke and run around the edge, that slows the defensive end down. That also slows the defensive end down on the read if you hand it off the Zke, and that also puts the safety in the box having to come down and have to worry about tackling that, and

that will help you in the play action game. Jerry Jones has been asking for this for a while, and I think this is a key thing that can help the Cowboys be able to run. You know, considering the old line maybe you know, maybe not at full strength, that's true. I can see them trying to put that wrinkle in there every now and then with the zone read. I just don't know if Atlanta is gonna respect it enough.

I mean, I don't see Dak Prescott in that same athletic ability as you know a Cam Newton or Russell Wilson Kenny scram won't get you some yards, of course, and I think we'll have to do that as the game progresses, especially if Tyrn Smith is out there is not out there at left tackle, so I can see

them trickling a little bit of zone reading there. But for me, the most important factor to keep this run game going if those opensive linen are down is you got to just get a little bit more creative, have a little bit of counterplay to your run game started out one way to come back the other way. Get used Atlanta's aggressiveness like the Rams used are aggressiveness last

week against them. Have him forced them going one way, bring it back, do a lot of you have some motion behind the line of scrimage just to get their eyes going somewhere else before the snap. So to me, I just think they have to stick with that pound game. Hopefully Zeke is at his top level and he's able to perform well against this Atlanta team, but they got to use misdirection, get this defensive lineman's eyes out of

the backfield and concerned with other things. All right, we are at our SWBC Mortgage Virtual home studios for the Players Line party by Hotels dot Com. When we come back, let's address the defense here. Jalen Smith spoke to the media yesterday and cleared up a little confusion that Church and I had yesterday. So let's step to that and talk about it next right after these messages on the

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We do it every Tuesday, Monday through Friday right here on Dallas Cowboys dot com. I'm gonna scrugs, longtime Cowboys reporter joined by two former Cowboys safety's Danny McCray and Barry Church. So Jalen Smith met with the media yesterday and gave us some pretty good information When Church and I were talking yesterday, when McCrae were you off, we assume that Jalen would go to the middle linebacker spot

to replace Lake Vanderesh. But Jalen says no, He's still going to be a will linebacker and he will call the play. So Joe Thomas is going into the middle linebacker spot. So Church, based on our conversation where we had yesterday, now that we've got the whole deal straight, that Jalen's gonna stay at the will and Joe Thomas is in the middle, give me your opinion on Joe Thomas having to have that man that spot taken over for Vanderesh. For me, this is this is a bit

of a head scratcher right here. I would assume that you know, Jalen Smith, being the most experienced linebacker, would go to the mic linebacker. That's usually a role reserved for the quarterback of the defense. Sean Lee held that down for a very long time, and he'll be calling plays but from the will side, and that's that's pretty confusing. I've never seen it done before, but I guess it's a new day. But if you got Joe Thomas at that middle linebacker spot, it scares me a little bit

because he's not the biggest of statures of man. I mean, he middle linebacker position, and as we've seen last week, the officive linemen are able to get to the second level extremely fast. So that's one thing the defensive line's gonna have to correct is just to get those offensive

linemen off of the linebackers. But usually that's a royal reserve for your bigger your bigger linebacker, and Jalen being that bigger linebacker, I would assume that he would have gone right in there because as a middle linebacker, you've gotta be a thumper. You gotta be able to take those pulling guards on those fullbacks on. So I'm interested to see how long Joe Thomas is gonna be able

to last in those trenches. But we'll see. I guess the Cowboys know something that that I don't, but we'll see. You know, I'm a little concerned, but I'm gonna go back to last week and how they've been been working through this whole offseason and maybe Jaylen Smith will not be playing will once they get into the game, he'll

be playing Mike Um. It's a little confusing, and I'm I'm kind of starting to wonder and what that says about Jalen Smith that they would put the young guy in there to handle all that instead of putting Jalen Smith in there one Because we have a system now to where they say that the that the d lineman or two gathering at church. If you remember and knew it when when Rob Ryan got here, our D line was two gaping and Sean Lee was able to run all over the field and just make plays. I would

see that. It's something a strength of Jalen Smith's right, So he should be playing to Mike and he should be able to play behind those those two gaps and feel wherever he wants to and play based off instinct. So I'm a little confused about the will linebacker spot. But I'm just gonna chalk that up to they're still trying to be secretive and not let the other team know what they're doing, or I don't see it lasting

very long. If the D line is able to do what they're supposed to do and successfully two gall uh, you know, like they weren't able to do last week. You know they're secretive now. So so we just don't know what we used to know. But that's what Jalen said. And Jalen, by the way, you know, just listening to the press comp he was adding, he says, I am a will lineback. I'm a real linebacker me. He stated it several times to let everyone know this is my position.

This is where I'm gonna be, and I guess this is where he feels feels comfortable. So if Joe Thomas is right there, mcraig, do you look for Atlanta to try and establish the run by kind of going up the middle and then also using that play action passing to try and hit their guys Ridley and Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and Julio Jones deep Because you know, if we've seen one thing and if you can make that play action pass work with deep threats like that, it

can be pretty lethal. What what's crazy is they're gonna do that anyway, because we are known as a team who overpursues Hi and gets out of position and overruns bootlegs and and and deep passes. Right, So now you're gonna put any young guy in there, and and I just don't think it's really gonna work If that's the game plan for for Atlanta. Um Like, maybe they know something and we don't know and they're really coaching them up, or maybe the scheme, the scheme that they're running this

week just has Jay and fit there. But you know, it looked like he's playing something different. That's the only way I can see this working because if Atlanta focuses on running the ball based off what we saw last week, it'll be a long day for the Cowboys. And now that you put this guy in here, it might it'll be a longer day from him. And you know, and nothing against him, we just hadn't seen seeing him be

able to do it. And you know, I trust Jalen Moore. Yeah, And if I'm Atlanta, I'm coming straight at Joe Thomas. I mean, he was a fact up for a reason. And as we see in the NFL, whenever the new guy comes in, offenses go straight to them to see what he's all about. So if I'm Atlanta, I'm going straight at Joe Thomas, saying if he can thump with the best of them, seeing if we can get some

running game going behind him. But that middle linebacker spot usually, like I said that, you should been served for a bigger statue of guys because when they go into a zone, when they go into a cover two, even if Jalen or Vanderas who's really good at this, bites up on the run, they're able to get back and use their sides to force the quarterback if he is going over the middle on a play action to get some error

underneath there. So with his small stature out there, I'm not sure sure how it's gonna work out, but you know, hats goes off to Joe Thomas. Hopefully he's able to play and play well at that mic linebacker position. Now let's let's let's also throw this in here, and remember we have Will McClay on it. He brought up Luke Gifford. Luke Gifford's bigger than this truth than Joe Thomas. So

so maybe Luke Gifford is that guy. Once again, the Cowboys are real secretive about what they're doing and they don't allow us to to to you know, say what what what people are seeing in practice. So so they're kind of like a hockey team. Now, hockey team doesn't give you any clue about anybody hurt or leg injury or you know, they will, they won't say anything at all. So so that's what maybe maybe that's who who's the middle linebacker is. It's going to be Gifford. So you know,

all right, Gifford out there along with Jalen Smith. So Gifford at the middle linebacker spot and then then uh Jaylen Smith at the whill, so we'll see. I mean, this is kind of the this is the interesting part about this new Cowboys regime heresy. They're not telling us anything. We used to know a whole lot more so, so we'll see. And that's why we're talking right here. We're telling you Cowboy fans, um, we don't know. So we're not gonna sit anyway, not gonna sip you take we

know where we don't know. We're just assuming. These are options. You know, these are the options they have. And you gotta look at all the options you have here and see what you can do there. But obviously offensive line linebacker two spots that we talked about that are our issues there. So let me ask this question. Church. I'll start with you, how many dbs are you running in your base five or six when you have Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and the Gage out there, those three good

receivers plus I Hayden Hearst tight end as well. Oh, I'm I'm going in an Nickel package. I'm not even touching base. I'm going in a Nickel package. And for those who don't know the Nickel package, that's let's see, that's five defensive backs. So that's what I'm going on, and I'm doing that because for the simple fact that I don't think Todd Gurley is the same Todd Gurley we've seen a couple of years ago who was up

there for MVP discussion and all that stuff. I think he's slowed down a bit, So you don't need I don't think you need that heavy front seven in there. I don't think you need all four down linemen and three linebackers in there just to stop the run. I think you can get away with having a nickel presence in there, or an extra safety, maybe a b car in there as well, who's not extremely great against the run, but can cover as well, because you have that guy

in hating hers out there at tight end. Now. In Baltimore, he was not seen as that, you know, big play, flashy guy because they had Mark Andrews. But he's able to stretch the field and we saw an example of that last week when he went against Seattle and he had that diving catch. So this is a guy that can easily run past linebackers and can outstring safety. So I would have another dB on there just to kind

of get an extra coverage in there. Because I think with our front six in there, those two linebackers in those four down linemen, I think we can handle the run. But I'm definitely adding another defensive back in there to help control that passing attack. For Atlanta. You're way more optimistic than I am. All right, listen, I'm rolling up there in my regular base person there unless they come out in any level, just because you know, and this may be leading into y'all might find out where I'm

going with my pick later on. But I don't think we can stop the run with what we have. I just I just think we're gonna have to dedicate a lot of pieces to stop in the run and making um, you know, Maddie try to beat us. So I see us coming out there, you know, I'm matching their personnels, and then whenever they get into those pasting situations, we get out there and Nickel, you know, possibly die if b car comes out there, you know, I mean, if we need another person to come out there and cover

or tight end or running back. But you know, I'm just matching because I think the main focus here is being able to stop the run, because if you can't, you're not going to be able to defend anything else. It's just going to be a very long game and the time talent possession will be on Atlanta side. So do whatever you have to do to stop the run.

Mc cray, I agree with you one hundred percent because it goes back to that whole time of possession and what we've seen from the Cowboys the past few seasons. So when you leave that defense out on the field for thirty plus minutes, they've got issues. The offense has to help carry the defense. So stop and Tied Gurley,

stopping the run and stopping the play action passing. I agree with it all day long because we saw the Rams with forty attempts, all right, that was one reason why they held the ball for eleven minutes and sixteen seconds longer, because they ran the football and ran it effectively had over one hundred and fifty yards in the football game. I remember when the Rams played the Cowboys last year at Jerry World, Ty Gurley only had twenty

yards and didn't have a whole lot of carries. And when Todd Gurley gets his numbers up twenty one and twenty five times a game, it's almost ninety five percent of the time ends up in a victory. And now it was for the old La Rams. But you get tied Gurley's numbers up like that, you got an opportunity to win the game. And that's gonna be the same

thing with Ezekie Elliot. You know, you get Zeke's numbers up there in the twenty twenty five range, the Cowboys are gonna have an excellent chance to win because running the football is what they want to do. Let's get our second time out right here on the players Launchbot by Hotels dot Com. I'm newscruns joined by former Cowboys safeties Danny McCrae and Barry Charge. Hey, they're Cowboys fans. With ty Cleaners at Home pickup and delivery, cleaning your

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get ready for the Stanley Cup. They're gonna take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. I am excited about this, gentleman. We do not see championships in our city very often. He Okay, the last championship we saw was twenty eleven. That was the Dallas Mavericks in a six game victory over the Miami Heat. Was a beat Lebron James and d Wade and Chris Bosh. And then a few months later the Rangers had an opportunity to win the World Series. We all know how happened in that Game six, which

forced the Game seven and Saint Louis wonted. Stars haven't won the Cup since nineteen ninety nine, haven't played for since two thousand, so twenty years and here's a local team playing for a championship. I'm excited about it, and hopefully the Stars could bring this thing home. Four wins away from winning the Stanley Cup. So I'm excited about that, guys. Shout out to the Stars from Houston, off and the lately so sorry, I'm good with that. Nobody hot heaven.

Stop to the Stars and shout out to the boy Dirk out there. Man. He brought that championship home back in twenty eleven. Man, So shout out to that boy Dirt. It's hard to win championships, fellas. It is absolutely hard, by the way. You know, McCray, you missed some of our NBA talk the other day. But how about Janisana Tacoupo winning his second MVP. But now there's a lot of swirling about whether or not Yannis is going to sign a lucrative deal this offseason, and maybe he'll play

out his final year with the Bucks. And then you got people you know, thinking about suiting it up and just saying, figure out how can they lure Jannis to their team In twenty twenty one, Yannis will be a could be a free agent. Kawhi Leonard could be a free agent. Man. This NBA next next summer could be pretty interesting. Yeah, extremely interesting. I mean, go ahead, my bad, yea. Where's where's he going? He's going to Brooklyn. He gonna go out there with Kyrie and uh, Kyrie and KD.

I mean, you need three, you need three if you're gonna win. So he better pick the right place. I don't I don't understand why he want to say I'm Milwaukee. But I mean, you know what do I know you need to get out of Milwaukee because no disrespect, but nobody, no, no, the free agents are trying to go up to Milwaukee. Man, it just gets too cold up there. Anybody trying to go out. And that's that's the issue, that is the issue. I remember Chris Bosh when he was playing in Toronto.

He was like, I can't guys, I can't get guys to come here. And d Wade did not want to go to Cleveland and and that's why they all ended up in Miami. So when you start to think about teams that are there, Dallas Mavericks might have an opportunity because if you're Yannis, having a guy like Luca dont gets you the ball and then playing with a Kris STAPs portzingis because Chris STAPs likes to operate outside a lot too, so that could allow Yannis to go down

low and get inside. So I mean this I'm just I don't know, but I'm just saying if he decided to give a team a look, Dallas would be a very interesting look for Yannis because two other European players, guys that like to share the ball. This could be fun. You got the kool Ai going right and not annoy you got the koul a going. I know you're happy to the stars. I know you're happy about the stars. But but Yannis is not coming to Dallas with port Zingis and Luca. All right, I'll tell you where he's

not going. He's not going to your Houston Rockets. And tell you that right now. You never got rust. Don't know what's going on. We don't know what's going right now. I know we do that. That's why, that's why it's possible they might just redo this whole thing and we might get Yannis. All right, So I don't know. He's definitely not playing with Harden. After after what Harden said, He's definitely not playing the Harden. Your boy, your boy

Tillman for Tita's not paying that kind of money. You got Russ on one of those crazy kind of How how long is Russ making forty million bucks a year? I mean forever in the day and they've given away draft picks. No, bro, there's no improving that to You're not about to get no superstars. You're stuck with that, and good luck on the first time assistant that they're gonna hire for this job here, I mean, good good luck on that man till he's cheap. That's Lakers are

six baby ke Lakers and six. I'm like, I learned to give up the Rockets two years ago when they when James Harden was choking every time he got to Game seven. So you know, I'm not I'm not worried that the Rockets did not get me excited. All right, let's step back into the Cowboys and more importantly, Danny one of your favorites your fantasy team here, Amari Cooper um did take part in the mock game today that

Mike McCarthy said the team held. So uh, your boy Cooper okay, held out of practice Thursday, but good to go and and expect to see him out there for the Atlanta Falcon. So there we go, Mary Cooper should be out. God listen, I don't know. I don't know why I drafted the guy man. You know last year

it was the same thing. Then all of a sudden he had a handstring even before we won, and now was a foot I'm just you know, nothing against him, but as far as as far as fantasy goes, it's too much stress, worried about him every Thursday, showing up on an injury report and watching him in the game. Watching him in the game, you know, we're not throwing no deep passes. He not looking like what he looked like when he first came here and then got him

one hundred million dollars. It's just too stressful. If I might trade him, I don't know, I might trade it, but I do hope you have a good game. I'm gonna start him, and I hope his foot is all right, and I hope we thought the ball, you know, deep down the field, or give him the reverse pass or something. I don't do something for the guy one hundred million. We need to see what it looked like, because right now it's not looking like that. The panic, I like it.

I like the panic. Two weeks in the panic, I think you'll be okay. I really do it, because what do we always know? We're gonna get out of mar You're gonna get your thousand yards from him here, and you're gonna get your bevy of touchdowns. This game is also at home, Danny, and that's where we've seen Amara Cooper eat. Is at home, so you should be good on that. Here's something that I wanted to bring up here that has um when I think about the Cowboys offense. One,

they don't get enough conversions in the red zone. That's been a problem here for the past couple of seasons. It was a problem last week against the Rams. Got to do a better job of converting those red zones because one of the things we know is that Atlanta will give them up to you. The Seattle Seahawks allowed they got themselves five touchdowns at eleven possessions last week. Cowboys got to take advantage of the fact that Atlanta

will let you score. They've got to get touchdowns and not have a bunch of field goals in this football game. That's my opinion there Church which thinking, oh yeah, they gotta secure to secure, to secure to touchdown when they get into the red zone. Like you said last week, Chris Carson and them boys, Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf, they were able to do whatever they wanted once they got to the red zona, run the ball, pass the ball,

whatever they wanted. So for me, for the Cowboys that have success offensively this week, they gotta put the ball in the end so they can't settle for you know, three points here, three points there, because all that's gonna do is just keep Atlanta in the game. I think we gotta put our foot on their neck and just pretty much shut them down from the start. We gotta start, We gotta start the game fast. We didn't do that last week. We la stuck around and ended up winning

the game. So we just gotta step on the neck early and pretty much when we had those opportunities to cash in, we gotta go ahead and do it because either either that or Atlanta's gonna stick around and what they're passing attack, who knows what's going to happen. So we just got to put them to bed early. Let me tell you this, all right, let me tell you this just so we can clear this up. You know, whatever happened last week is irrelevant. The Dallas Cowboys are

not the Seattle Seahawks, all right. So just just because you know, Seattle went down there and put a whooping whipping on Atlanta, does not mean we're gonna be able to do the same thing. So I'm not even looking for that same type of stuff that The reality is we put up seventeen points last week, all right, So we need to find a way to get our offense clicking. So I really don't even see it see it being that high scoring of a game. We need to get

something rolling. Like you said, we talked about the first segment. Our old line is in trouble, so putting up points, you know, it's you know, just based off what we have going on the field. Possibly it's not going to be easy and we're gonna have to match that. I brought this up, you know, I wrote this down for we gotta hear my guy, Julio. I think y'all talked about tray Hunt Diggs, you know, and how Mike McCarthy had all the faith in them yesterday. Did y'all talk

about that? Yes, yes, we did, all right. Twenty twelve Julio five catches, one hundred and twenty nine yards. Twenty fifteen Julio twelve catches, one hundred sixty four yards, two touchdowns, and twenty seventeen he had a we call it an off year. He had sixty fifty seven but they won the game. Twenty eighteen, he had six catches on hundred eighteen yards in a touchdown. He's averaging one hundred seventeen yards and almost a touchdown per game on us. McCarthy

wasn't here. But the faith that you're showing on them, hopefully we have a way to double team. This guy is showing some extra attention because just just saying that we're gonna roll out there and do it we usually do. I don't think that's gonna work against this dude. All right, so let's get into it, fellas. What's what's the prediction here? What's the prediction for the game? Church? I'm gonna start with you here. My prediction for this game, I got it.

I got a little bit different than a d MAC. I got a little more high scoring. So I'm gonna go thirty eight thirty two Cowboys in this one. And for me, the key to this game it has to all rely on the defense. In my opinion, got I think it's gonna come down to the defense that makes the biggest stop or makes the first turnover. And for the Dallas Cowboys, they have to make Atlanta one dimensional. I know it's gonna be harder than or it's gonna be harder than you know, it's easier said than done,

but they gotta make this team one dimensional. They have to slow down or stop talking Gurley and force Matt Ryan to go back there in his five step drops and throw the ball downfield, chuck the ball downfield to get to get their offense rolling. I feel like if they if we can do that, if we can make this team one dimensional, it brings out the best in our defensive line. It lets them to be aggressive and

lets them get after the quarterback. And let's d Law Alvin Smith, Tyrn Crawford and them boys do it do they do best, and that's get after the quarterback. So we gotta make this team one dimensional. Like I said, it's easier said than done, but I believe it's plausible because I don't think Todd Gurley is that same guy from a couple of years ago. And I think we

can shut down this run pretty easily. Man. Man, Okay, look, look, I'm a little nervous to do this, but you know, just based off what I saw and then and then last year, I think I might have to go twenty four to twenty one dirty birds. I just don't know, And usually usually I would be confident. And the fact that if I say we're gonna win, then we probably

lose I'm gonna just go opposite. I don't I don't know what we're gonna be able to stop the running based off what I've seen from our offense and our offensive line that we have rolling out there. Of Tyren Smith doesn't play, I think that is a big, big issue. So he doesn't play. I see us losing this game by three. I put out my prediction yesterday on on Channel five so here in town, so and I had the Cowboys winning and I had to score up in

the thirties. This was before I dived in here and realizing, Okay, Tyrant Smith may not play in this football game, and you have to make that adjustment there Church, You and I spoke about it yesterday. Tank Lawrence has to show up. Tank Lawrence has four sacks at his last sixteen football games here, baking twenty million dollars a year. You need

your star to be a star. If Alden Smith comes and plays with the intensity he did last week and take Lawrence can match that, that can help limit Mattie Ice and that passing game. They got to have the defense help out this offense here. I'm gonna go and lower my prediction here in terms of the points scored in this football game, and I'm thinking it's got to be a twenty three twenty one Dallas victory. Cowboys can't follow the O and two because next week you go

to Seattle. So this has to be a game of urgency. This also has to be a game where the coaches have to help the players cover awards on both sides of the football. This is where Mike McCarthy, in my opinion, this is where he's gonna show us what kind of head coach he is. How does he get Mike Nolan the defense rolling, how do they work with Joe Philbin, how does he coordinate with Kellamore to figure out how

they get themselves a win? And one thing we do know, Mike McCarthy kind of plays pretty well at at and T stating right, Danny, right, right, Listen. I knew the koola was coming, but based on what you just said, that kool aid is bitter again. All Right, you just went. You went from a very high scoring game to the Cowboys went about two possibly and hoping that Mike McCarthy has some magic, that he had something with Aaron Rodgers here in Dallas, and he not even called in the place.

So so the kool aid away, keep drinking it. We'll see what We'll see what happens on Monday. I really really hope we win. But but but the truth enemy and what I saw last week and building up from what we had last year, because it kind of looks the same, does not. It does not both well for me believing that will win this game. I just I'm just not understanding this, all this faith that both of you have, and Todd Gurley, I just I just that's

that's the question for you. Guys are making this scene like this guy's a this is twenty seventeen or eighteen. Who have we stopped from running the ball? It don't even have to be time. One game. We had one run. We got a game, we got We have the same eyes for the most part they we had last year, with the exception of Tristan Hill, who everybody said could not play, and then he got out there and he looked just like what we thought he was gonna look

like last year. So that's that's what we're rolled them out there, and we got we got a second year player playing Mike, we got Jalen playing Will. And our offense, I mean, our defense couldn't stop the run last week. It's nothing that makes me believe that we're gonna be able to stop the run next week. And they have another running back as well. But like I said, they didn't have to run the ball last last week because they were they were behind by so much so it

was like, if we can stop the run. So what's your over under? You think Todd Gurley is going over one hundred or under? I think he's over one hundred total yards. I think he's gonna over one hundred total yards. I see him coaching a couple of screen passes. Okay, total, I see him gonna over over one hundred total yards. What about you? Now, I can see that I can see over an over one hundred as well. And in church, let me emphasize this. You're not They're not asking for

twenty seventeen Todd Gurley, but Todd early today. Can he be as effective as Malcolm Brown and Cam Acres were last week? I think Todd Gurley can be that effective. And with the fact that the Cowboys have some awards here, if they don't plug him up, you know, I do think Todd Gurley can get himself when you use the receiving skills and the running skills. I do think he can get himself one hundred total yards in this football game.

He can still give you that. He's not gonna be all pro Todd Gurley, but can he still be an effective running back in this National Football League against the defensive has some issues here. I do think he can do that. I think the Church. I think the McCrae right on that Church. That's my opinion. Okay, he can't. He can't be all pro. He can be against against against the defense. Listen, let me tell you something. We can make him look like y'all pro if if if we if we do not too gap and tapple like

we're supposed to, hopefully it doesn't have him. But you know that's my story. I'm sticking to it. Okay. That is The players Lounge for this week will be back Monday in two thirty. Will you be in victory Monday. It'll be Monday morning at an O and two Cowboys start. I'm gonna be scruggs as Danny Mccraieberry Church. That's been the Playoffs Lodge, brought you by Hotels dot Com on

Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.