Player's Lounge: Garbage Time?

Ultimate Survivor. He is Danny McCray. Makes sure you're catching him every Wednesday at seven o'clock pm on CBS for Survivor forty one. He's also got his official team Danny Merchant. Yes, absolutely fight when they can get that Merchant absolutely yeah. Man, it's good. It feels good to be in studio. Nothing new. Oh so, by the way, you can't get that that team Danny Merch at shop Team Danny Merch m E rcch dot com or you can click the link in my bio on Instagram and that's Danny McCrae forty in

the studio Babys WBCNBC Studio. Man, were just missing one, just missing one major component. But you know he's coming in from home right now. Listen when you when you're a TV star, you got your Emmys and you got all us to look at the background and backgrounds awards. I think I see a couple of Emmys. Is that that whole shelf? Emmy? Yeah? Man? Oh so multiple? Like I would probably want to do the show from my

from my spot two if I had that many. You know what, But you know whatever, Man, I just appreciate you just being on the show with us and just giving us the time to learn under the great NEWI scrubs. That's all I can do. That's all I can do, is appreciate you. Man, he's using Emmy's doorstops. It looks like you got so many in out. You gotta be a record. Can we book? Can we think so? I think you can book? Yeah. One of the best hosts in the world right now, man, Emmy Award winning Yeah,

book your host in boot camp about journalism? Book them now, right, he has the credentials. Yes, sir, what's something? What's on your mind today? Baby? You two can be like Bart Scott who started off with me in NBC Sports Radio and you look at Bart Scott now telling Marcus Spears who came by to go ahead and learn from the new dog. And you see where he's at now. So yes, yes, you two and if you two act right, you guys can be out there at that level. Two. Book book them,

book them. Oh man, let's go. We're talking about the Cavils. You guys done, you got you got it all out. We all out for the day. Man, We all out of ammunition. Man, we done. This is the players lounge where you get treated like you are in the locker room, Hayes, you get bored down. This is this is a part of it. You step in here, you step in here, the bullets will fly your way. You will get stabbed from the front, got in the back, you will get stabbed.

You got Chris, You got Chris Beam in the in the balcony section jumping off the top road and getting his links into from three. But that so, man, the Cowboys are going to face the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. They are a nine point favorite in this football game. That's what Vegas is saying. So they're basically in Las Vegas saying, hey, we trust the Cowboys that this was a stinker against the Broncos. They're gonna get right back and go forward. Wednesday is their next practice here off today.

When you see a line like that, guys, how do you feel? It makes me a little nervous, um, just because you know, the week that we're coming off of playing against the Broncos. There is a lot of stuff that we need to fix, and mainly what we need to fix this I'm listening to Dan Quinn, you know, yesterday and his press conference, and it sounds like he's talking about people not giving a hundred percent effort, the hustling,

not the one hundred. Yeah. So I mean, if you're gonna have a nine point spread, you're gonna have to be clicking on all cylinders and everybody needs to buy back in in order for you to cover that. So it makes me a little nervous because we came off a pretty pretty disastrous performance on Sunday. Yeah, it makes me nervous too, because I didn't like how all run

defense was handled. Now I'm not saying Atlanta got, you know, one of the premier rushing attacks or one of the premier offenses in football, but they still can run the ball a little bit and they got Matt Ryan out there behind the himp or at the quarterback position, and he's seemed pretty much everything. The guy's been in the league forever, so it's gonna be hard to kind of get him off his game and disguise things against him.

But we know he can't be got. But if we go out there like we did against the Broncos, you know, feeling themselves and going out there saying, hi, we can just flip switch and won't be able to go ahead and turn it on. I think that's a bad recipe right there. Man. I think this coaching staff think they need to be on this team throughout the week, just letting them know, like, man, hey, these guys get paid

too over there. And there was a lot of bulletin board material, you know, mainly by myself and a couple other people out there who gave the Broncos bulletin board material. But for the most part, man, they need to keep their heads low and go out here in Atlanta and let them know that Atlanta does not deserve to be on the same field. Stop on their throats from the beginning. I think what we did last week, once we gave bront the Broncos juice. We gave him a little bit

of momentum. They stopped us on fourth down a couple of times, a couple of penalties, couple stalled out drives, and they felt like, hey, we can hang with these boys. But if we go out there and shut it down early, jump on this Atlanta team early, I'm sure they'll go ahead and close it up and get ready for next week and we can get back in the wind. Call them, but we cannot sleep on this team because, like you said, the professionals as well, we know that we know that

Atlanta has seen a lot of dan quinn. All right, Matt Bryan, you say Matt Ryan has seen everything. He's seen a lot of dan Quinna. So it's gonna be a nice little chess game, I believe on Sunday between Matt Ryan offensive coordinator and then my man DQ. You know what I'm saying, to get us back on track, what's DQ going, what's he gonna do to provide some pressure out there, because it's like that d Lion last art Ard Lion last week. It was like, man, they

got stagnant out there, there was no pressure. Teddy two Gloves went out there and picked. I'm just telling you, listen, we all agree that we were sleep walking over We slept walk out there, and like I said, I heard dan Quinn say out of his own mouth that the thing that was a little disappointing was that you weren't seeing guys hustling to the ball like they usually do

as far as uh. There were a lot too many one on one tackles instead of gang tacklers, where if if, if you have three or four guys running to the ball, when that first person misses the tackle, then that second and third person to be able to clean him up. And he said he didn't see enough of that in

the previous game. And to me, that sounds like hustle yea and being there and not depending on your teammate to make the play, but going and make sure you doing what you're supposed to do just in case he doesn't. And it was one clip. There was one clip that we saw from that game I sent to y'all in the in the group chat we had, and it was it was a pretty much a microcosm of what happened against the Broncos. When number thirty three Williams he ran

up the gut for about six yards. There was a couple of cowboys jumped on him and he ended up driving them boards another six yards through the defensive tackle off of them. You know, get up off from me out here. I don't know what Kazy was doing because Casey just came in and just kind of threw a shoulder and fell to the ground. It just looked super bad. But Javarte runs for another twenty yards after that, And that's what dan Quinn was talking about. There wasn't enough

people hustling, nothing, enough people finishing out there. And when you do that, you're in trouble. You get beat down. The great brand sham Man in the end of Wet Wet bandamaham over Man behind us, you know, chopping it up. So it had it had to give a salute to the to the legend right there. The National Football League was full of teams that just didn't have their best

effort on Sunday. So looking at the Cowboys and the fact that they were right there in the mix with other teams, does it give you any pause in the

locker room? Do you do you guys in the room saying, hey, look, yeah we played bad, but guess what a whole lot of league played that yesterday too, I mean to some extent, But but I think you're professional enough to look in the mirror and say that the only one that really mattered is you not playing up to the standard that that you've set throughout the first seven games of the season. And uh, we can look back and say, you know,

LA played this way? Whoever played this way? But the team in our division that we're trying to catch is the Arizona Cardinals, and they won all right out the quarterback. I mean, they still won. So the team that we're trying to chase, an NFC, who were who we want to beat out to get that number one spot and get that first bye week, they won last week. So we can't afford to be like every other team in

the league. We need to be on our game every every time we go out there on the field and lead that lead that field with a W. Yeah, And you can't. You can't look out of the squads because I mean, that's when it comes into the built in excuse and you're like, well, everybody messed up, so it's all right, we'll be back next week, and then you'll come back next week and perform the same way and get beat down. So you can't worry about what everybody else is doing out there. You gotta focus and they've

done a good job. But it's so far this season, you know, taking the game back game play back play a little cliche, but they've been doing it at a pretty good job so far this season. So I don't think they can look at any other team. They just got to focus up and say, hey, we went out there, we got beat down. You gotta take accountability, and so far this season they've been doing a great job of keeping each other accountable, whether it's coaches, players, whatever it

may be. They've done a great job of doing that so far. So they got to take accountability for it and say, hey, let's move forward. You know, we watched the tape, got our corrections. Let's move forward and hopefully start a new when we go against Atlanta, because like I said, we can't sleep on them either, because they cut, they mess around and come out here and look like

Teddy two gloves for sure, all right. Jerry Jones on one or five three the Fan Today had this to say when asked about offensive tackle Tyrn Smith, if you'll play against Atlanta, he says it will get better as we go along, so I don't look at it as long term. But he says that you know there's a chance he might not play. So if Tyron Smith is not a left tackle, Danny, what combination do you want to change? Get? Didn't getting right? Out right? Just a

set up getting right? It's just a shop. Yes, neuis no Bill Bill Bill Parcel, Bill Bill Parcells. Who's to have a line where he said, I reserve the right to change my mind. Change my mind? Ain't jasen? Okay, um Leo Collins needs to be playing left tackle. Okay, he needs to be playing left tackle. When gave still the shot, which you know, against my wishes, shot to get out there and play left tackle, and it did

not work out. Put that man in the spot that he earned on the right side of your officsive line at right tackle. Put Leela left and let it roll. Okay, At the end of the day, if Leo plays, what we do know is at least the right side is gonna be good. Well, we don't want to go out there with us having to worry about both sides of our offensive line, both tackles struggling, and we having to figure out ways to help them out with chips or tight ends coming in motion over and chipping that way.

Our backs chipping on the left side. We don't want to have to do that. So put my man still back where he's been performing to his best best of visibility and let LC see what he can do with his fifty meal. Yeah. I might have to agree with you there, d Mac. I know all one of them on the left side last last week because I thought, you know, he had momentum going. He was our best tack or our best offensive lineman outside the two Hall of Famers, So go ahead and move him over there.

But he struggled immensely and he gave up nine pressures. I think he gave up two sacks as well, So that was a big hurt to his confidence. Like that

stabbed his confidence a little bit. So I'm gonna put him back on that right side and hopefully he's able to perform like he did in those previous five or six games that he was at the right tackle, just to get his confidence back up there, because if we had a guy going where he thought, you know, I'm playing at this such a high level, I could be one of these Pro Bowl tackles as well, and we want to keep that momentum going. We don't want to back to back weeks where he's getting drums on the

left side. Now, if he goes back to the right side and gets drummed as well, then I mean that you had your opportunity and then your loss. It they took it from, and they took it from So I'm gonna put him back on the right side where he feels more comfortable. He's a naturally a right handed guy, so hopefully he's able to block a little bit better on that side, handle all the stunts they got going

over there, and get his confidence back up. And then, like you said, if if Lyell stinks it up on the left side, we know we're gonna have Terrence or Tyron Smith come back there eventually, so we'll know that left side is gonna be down solidified if he's in the game, which I don't know. I mean, these injuries are piling up, but at least if he can hold it down on the right side, we got one side secure, and then when Tyron gets back, he can do that left side, and then we got all Pro Pro Bowl

potential guy as a swing tackle. But I still see it as a good problem to have, but we got to solidify one side and hopefully still is able to do that. A right nui NOUI listen, I know you heard Church over here talking about you know, we expect Tyron Smith to be back and all this other stuff. What we did expect Tyren Smith to be is out. Okay, we expect him to be out. So my confidence in having him for long term and a stretch of eight nine games carrying you into the playoffs, it's really low.

It's really low because we talked to the beginning of the season about the old two thy ten Tyrnt Smith and feeling better than you ever felt. Now we got bonespurs, we let the we let the ankle sprain, you know, slide, because that was one of those things where it just happened. But now you know, now you getting into having bones, furs and stuff that that you really can't explain and really can't put a time table on when you'll be back in the game. Yeah, that that is concerning to

me at the left tackle position. So no, we don't we don't really expect Tyren Smith to be back anytime soon. If we want him to be healthy enough to carry us through the end of the season and into the playoffs. Danny, I think you're gonna be really upset to find out they're gonna keep still at that left tackles. I just believe that's what they're gonna do. That's gonna be upset. I mean while he running around. Really, because we're talking

about you guys were professional players. We're talking about trying to have le Collins do something he hasn't done in the NFL, play left tackle. Yes, he did it at LSU, but now you talk about put him in here in the Nashville Football League left tackle. I don't know about that, man, But I'm confused on the thought process, right because still, I mean he played. They worked on his training camp, training camp, you know what I'm saying, Training camp and

training camp. All right, that's when you get your hand you try to work on, get your hand placement right, get your foot places right. But you ain't really seeing them dogs coming around that corner like he saw on Sunday. All right, So he's gonna be in the same position that Leo Collins was in. All right, let's see if he can do it. But he played in the SEC at left tackle. He got drafted, he played with them knowing that he had experienced playing the left tackle position.

Give him a shot. My man still is not like it's not fair, But I don't think it's gonna work out for him at left tackle should be a he should stay on that right side, the natural right side. Yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't think it's gonna work out for him. And they're gonna continue to put him out there and continue to ruin this dude when you already uh you know, lifted him up from last year to be a starting right tackle in the league. I just don't think it makes sense. So let me come

back it this way. We saw Terrence still getting a little bit of help. What if you put him back at left tackle and you just say, okay, look, we know we got to put Dalton Schultz over here, Jeremy Sprinkle over here. We just gotta just from the jump, go ahead and help this guy at the left tackle spot and keep LC over at the right. Would that make you feel any better day? You know? I mean as far as protection, it would, But for him as

a player, it would make me feel better. I mean, like I said, this guy is becoming a better, better player in the league. His progress is now being halted by injury to Tyrn Smith and Leel not wanting to play left. For us people not feeling comfortable enough for him playing level. We don't feel comfortable with still playing left, but we do feel good with him playing on the

right side. Like I'm like, if you can, if you have the option to show up one side and not be uh, you know, having leakage on both, then I'm going to show up with that one side and see what see what my fifty million dollar guy has on

the left. I'm gonna just see because what we've seen from Terry still, like you said, nine pressures, two sacks, and the pressures that were like he wasn't touching the guy and it's hand like I think it's hand placement, Like he wasn't able to really to really get the groove going on that side. So let's let's see what

seventy one has. Let's see try it out. And if they do end up putting still on that left side, Nui, they're gonna have to They're gonna have to bring some protection with them, Like they're gonna have to have either shoults or Zeke polar chip on the way out, whatever it may be, because like Daddy said, he struggled. He struggled, and it wasn't just like he was getting just bull

like hit with a doll. These different moves, cats seem to be able to just get around them with the quickness, just hit him with the one one little inside out move and then they're around the corner. So it maybe you know his foot placement, he's not used to being on that left side, move leading with that left side, or hand placement with the left hand or anything like that,

and maybe stronger with the right. But if they do put him out there, he's definitely gonna need help, definitely have to chip on with some with some tight ends, some running backs, whatever the case may be. Maybe some screens that help slow that pass rush down. But Kelly Moore, get into your bag like you've been in all season. Help these guys out and hopefully we can get his offense back back rolling. Okay, let's let's get our first break in hire. I've got one more question for you, Danny,

about Collins and Barry. I want to add this into the into at you into this as well, because this is something that plays into next year's football team. All right, let's get into that next. Danny mccraie, Barry Church Newy scrugs. It's the players. Louse brot to my Hotels dot com or Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio Honey, Big News Gary? Are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore? I'm Jackie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone, but the best deals are only for new custs. So to get a

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Let us give back into lel Coles and then we're gonna move in here to Dak Prescott and how he was playing as the team was down thirty to nothing looking in the next year and Danny, you have been correct in terms of trade tyrant Smith keeps Smiths in games. This happens every year. Maybe Tyrn Smith decides to call it a career at the end. Is this when you're saying, hey,

put put college left tackle now? Is this a move that you could make now and anticipated going in the next year that maybe college is your tackle long term? And does Collins even go to a guy like Joe Philbery offensive line coach, and said, you know what, put me at left tackle? Man? I don't know. I think

you won't know unless you put him out there. You know, if you just keep saying that he's you know, that's still maybe better, or we don't know if if Collins is gonna be able to adjust to being a left tackle, then we won't We won't even be able to answer that question at the end of the season. So I to your point, if that's the case, then yeah, try him out, because what we know is still is not the answer at left tackle. He's the answer at right tackle.

What we know is is making fifty meal all right, So trying to figure out how you're going to move into next year with him playing guard, what you're gonna do with Terrence Still What if Tyren Smith decides that he's not coming back. Try lay ill and left tackle,

see how it works. Or give him a couple of games games, right, because you already know it's a tough adjustment, So give him a couple of games, see if he continues to get better, and then make your decision at the in the year or to help you, yeah, to that point, you gotta at least try the guy out there. We saw what happened last week with Terren. Still I'm gonna keep bringing up. He had what eleven was an eleven hurries, now eleven hurries nine pressures and gave up

two sacks. So he definitely struggles on that left side. He's more predominantly on the right side. He's been holding down for a couple of games over there, So I leave him over there and then, lyell, as far as you know Tyren Smith, maybe he wants to leave or maybe he wants to you know, retire at the end of the season. I think you got you gotta see what else can do there first, So like you said, I would put him out there. If Tyren can't go this week, I put him out there just to see

what he can do. Now if he if he ends up going out there and playing lights out and being that guy, then definitely you would have a good problem on your hands, because if Tyren Smith walked away, you can easily just slide ELC right in there. So I think they got to give him an option out there

just to see. I don't think, you know, if they don't give him any type of reps out there, I don't think you can go into next year saying all right, if if Tyren Smith, if Tyren Smith's out, else just can slide in there because he had no reps that he hasn't done it since college. So I think in order for us to get that look, I would think they would have to put him in there for at least a game to see how he can adjust to it.

But um, we just know for a fact that Terrence still right now at that at that right side, he's good. Left side, he struggles a bit. Yeah, it corrected, let's correct the eleven eleven and hurries in two sexs. He gave up a lot of that's a rough day. I was definitely wrong about that transition, but I thought for sure, this guy's rolling right now. He can go from the

right to the left, no problem. But it's a lot of it's a lot harder than than anticipated because I mean the guys on the left side, they're coming from the blind side, So you're not gonna have a lot of help out there. And we've seen when you got put on the island as a tackle. If you ain't ready, they're gonna take you to school out there. Yeah, it's on film, so you know what to expect when you see still a lot there left tackles. We get ready to dance one on ones, They're gonna figure out the

way to get those one on ones. So the Cowboys next three games will be home against the Atlanta Falcons, on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs, and then their home game Thanksgiving Day against the Las Vegas Raiders. And we'll see exactly what these defensive coordinators come up with. Is they get ready to go up against this Cowboys offensive line. Now there's something Danny you wanted to bring

up from Sunday's game. The Cowboys are down getting drilled and dan Quinn dan Quinn, but Mike McCarthy decides that he wants to keep Dak Prescott and the first team offense out there. He says they wanted to get into two minute drill work. That was the reasoning. There a lot of people on social media saying, why in the heck is Dak Prescott out there having come off of a calf injury and a blowout where the game has

already been decided. Yeah. Man, that's one of those things where I'm like, you know, it's not a problem till it's a problem. All right. You know, you don't suffer any setbacks because, you know, because he didn't get hurt.

So then it seems like, Okay, we did get some two minute drill work, we did score two touch downs, but it only takes one play and then and then, not only the fans are questioning you, the ownership and the organization is questioning why you would have this guy out here knowing that he came off for injury all of last year. We see, we saw what it did to our team last year. He had to should shoulder injury during training camp. Well he had to sit out.

Now you got a calf injury. The best thing for our team and our chances to make it far into the playoffs and possibly make a Super Bowl, it is for Dak Prescott to be healthy. Without him healthy, this left tackle stuff don't matter, right, tackle stuff don't matter how good the defense plays, how bad, None of that

matters if Dak Prescott is not healthy. And I don't want to hear nothing about Cooper Rush being able to come in and carry the team if Dak Prescott is out for an extended period of time, because that ain't the case. So I think he was risky. I ain't the coach, but if it was me, I would have pulled my under the sixty million dollars man out of the game. I ain't. Now if we had double g's to back up, you know, be a different story. But

you know before that's the story for another day. But um, you know, I you know, I don't want to kill him for it. But if if that, you know, if he didn't come off that injury, like if he was an injury that week before and we went out there and we got drummed, I wouldn't mind him saying, all right, look, we need some type of momentum going forward to next week, so let's work on this two minute drill and get that thing going. And they did. They got two touchdowns.

They showed that they you know, they can move the ball a little bit. But would come to him coming off that calf injury that week before. I just don't see the reward the risk verse reward there by keeping him out there any longer. We've seen when he hurt that calf. He didn't even get hit, it was just a non contact hit. He was rolling out through the ball off his calf, and you know he got hurt by it. So him just coming off of that calf muscle injury his first game back, if we're getting drum

like that, I gotta sit him on the bench. I understand what he tried to do, trying to get you know, at least have some good film out there for this offense so they can go forward thinking, all right, you know that was just a bumping the road. We can get back to ourselves. But when he's coming off a calf injury like that just a week before or two weeks before, and he was kind of shaky for him coming into this game, I just don't see the reward

of having him out there. It ain't like you can come back and get a victory by any stretch of the imagination. So I think Cooper rushould have just came in there and fielding the as a couple of minutes and we called it a day from that because, like you said, we do not want I mean no disrespect to Cooper Rush, but we do not want Rush in there for a large chunk of this season. If it's spot duty, sure he can come in there and do

a Minnesota type game and perform well. But when it comes to a stretch and he's coordinated to start game planning for Cooper Rush, I don't think he'll survive very long. So we just gotta keep that man healthy. And by keeping them healthy, we gotta keep him off the field when we're getting our busts kicked like we were last weekend. And I think it's fair to say that you possibly

already have a hamper to Mark Cooper. You got a zeke who's sitting on the sideline icing his knee, and then you know, saying, now you got your quarterback out there, you know, in harm's way, going into you know, a position in the game where we have no chance of coming back. I just think I think it was a really risky moment. You know, thankfully we you know, we made it out of there, no injury, that gets healthy

and gonna play this week. But it was it was a very worrisome uh you know, couple of drives For me. I was like, man, I just don't get it because we got so much going on right now. We just came out for a six game win streak, were three games ahead in our division. Like, it's just you know, it's not like we're pressing to make sure we gotta get this or we gotta get this victory. We gotta do something here. We got space, We got time to

go ahead and let guys rest if need be. If we're getting drum like that, get him out the game. We got time because our division is so terrible. So to me, it was a questionable move. I could see the I could see the pros, but I just think the cons outweighed the pros. And this and this, uh in this decision, man, A part of me says, yes, this is truth, what you guys are saying, what we're

talking about, this is true. But the other part of me wonders, are we being too hard on these guys after this is a team that until this game, the other seven games were good football games. They won six of them. The game against Tampa, you're right there at the end. Can't we give him a mulligan, like you're doing golf, Danny can't give it? Yeah, Bury you to golf. Yeah yeah, I'm definitely taking a mulligan on that old don I gave a mulligan. They're not saying that's okay,

they slept walk that's not who we were. That ain't who that's not who we are. We won six straight. It's hard to keep a street going. Nobody wins them all. And I said, it's fine, We're gonna be okay. We all right, that's a mulligan. I'm not The season ain't over the sky, ain't falling sixty two, both of y'all. This Leto has both of y'all. This. We go out against Atlanta this week and let's just say it's a lot closer than we wanted to be, Like we had to scratching claw just to get back in and we

want a close one at home. Do you start to worry them? Absolutely not. Atlanta's playing good football. Okay, Atlanta has turned around and they beat some teams. I think they got a five hundred record. Now, yeah, they they're playing good football. I don't expect it to be easy, especially with the history of US playing Atlanta, so for some reason when we playing Atlanta, it's always one of those games. It's always one of those games. So Nah, the only thing that matters is a winner. As Pittsburgh,

it don't matter how you win. I listened to Mike Thomlins said, we're not from the Paul jobs and nobody for how were winning these games or we're winning all right, that's and that's all that matters. I don't care how close to it was, what you think, Nellie. I look at this and I just keep saying that you're not gonna play sixteen seventeen great games. You're not. You're gonna have a stinker. And I am concerned about the offensive line.

That's why we started about it, and we spent a whole lot of time talking about it with this this show. But I'll also kind of throw in this, how many other coordinators they got to face they could put together a scheme like Big Fangio. I mean Big Fangio came out here, had he basically had something for everything Kellen Moore wanted to do. And how many other teams can come out and give you that same kind of personnel, especially from the secondary standpoint that the Denver Broncos did.

I just don't know. I don't think Atlantic can play that kind of defense on this Cowboys football team. Yeah that's just good. Yeah, but yeah, you gotta have a strong secondary, and we knew that was the strength of this Denver team coming into the game. They just traded away Vaughan Miller. We thought their front seven wasn't going to be able to hang with what the Cowboys had going on, and they put a lot of pressure on

their secondary because they sat the box. They say, you know what, Dak, you're coming off of a calf injury. We want to see if you still got it. We can see if you can steal dices apart and win it on your arm alone. And they had a great game play because they had an extremely strong secondary out there. Sir Tam Fuller and those boys Derby they locked down Simmons as well. They locked down out there, and they

made it hard for our receivers. They had a lot of windows out there that it was a tough contested. If it was a catcher would have been contested. So, I mean, they had a strong secondary. And I don't

think I think you're right new Me. I don't think we're gonna go against for the rest of the remaining of the regular season a secondary as strong as Denvers that all allowed him to stack the box like that and still be able to strap up on the back and listen, We'll listen in fairness to killing more in our offense, all right, we had a couple of plays where Cede Lamb was behind the defense and we missed it. We had dropped out Tony Pollard, you know what I'm saying.

Like we had some plays where we could have Those would have been huge plays for our offense, all right, and it would have been it would have turned the game. And we just, like I said, we for some reason, the way that we went out to the game, I think our focus was a little off. I'm not sure how you really put it into words, but something just wasn't clicking with us. But the opportunities for us to make those plays, as good as their defense did play,

they were still out there. We just we just didn't capitalize on those plays. And that hadn't happened for us all season. We had usually been the team who we capitalized on every opportunity that we made, and I think that punt just was a sign for how the game was going for us that punp block where that's an opportunity that we capitalized on and it just did not fall away, And it was you know, I was like, yeah, this is this is How would you feel? D Mac?

You know we both did it. We both was a special team of them, Jody meeting, so we know how it was. But how would you feel if that was the if you if you were in right shoes, you know, we got a block punt, it went over the line of scrimmage, you touched it, which means they get the ball back. Would you feel like, man, you know, I gotta I gotta play better or is it just like man, I didn't even know that rule. I was just going out there trying to make a play. Yeah, I mean

in his situation, I don't think that that. I don't think anybody would have had the wherewithal to say, hey, that ball actually crossed a line of scrimmage, let me not touch it. Was literally a bank Bank player like no you him him being on the field. I don't think he could have looked in the sideline to see that the line of skimmers right there, so he shouldn't

touch the ball. So I don't feel bad. And when I'm in the meeting room, I don't think Joe, they's gonna make me feel bad either, because that is a Bank Bay play and also our whole entire team play bad. I'm trying to make a play, all right, and it just didn't fall that way. You know, this is not the same as dropping the pass, roughing the kicker. This is not that. This is one of those flukey moments

where it's like, dang, who knew? Who knew? We all texted each other in the group like, oh man, awful, Like who knew? I didn't know that? Right and right shoes, let me get that rock. Yeah, we still got it. Because because it usually applies to a deep punt or a field goal where it closes a line of scrimmage,

but it's usually way like it's far. It doesn't usually happen that close as I bouncing up into your hands like that was just you know, just just a bad chain of events for for us on punt at that for a punt return at that time. All right, let's take a break here. Two players could be returning to the Cowboys line up against the Atlanta Falcons. Was dive into that next with Danny mccrayberry Church time to rescuss. It's his players, not spoke to my hotels dot com.

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by Hotels dot com. This is about two players who used to play the game, former undrafted free agent Santi's Barry Church and Danny mccraig. Jerry Jones saying that DeMarcus Ware I should said, DeMarcus Lawrence is twenty one day window has not begun yet, so I should say. Mike McCarthy said it so not expected to be in his twenty one day practice window this week, so he's not gonna play against the Falcons. But Michael gall expected to play against the Falcons. Tristan Hills to tackle we could

see him playing two guys coming back into the lineup. Guys, how do you feel about that? Well, I definitely want to see what Michael Gallup got coming because we saw what said Wilson was able to do out there, and he proved that he's more than just a gadget guy. Like you know, in the past, I thought of him is just you know, a reverse guy. Kind of give him a pitch, you know, he got he can throw. He got a little arm on it, so he could throw the ball a little bit even with some reverses,

some slants and stuff like that. But he's proven to be more than that. He's a good route runner, he has good hands, and he has a good connection with Dak Prescott. We saw that on that fourth and four in New England when all options were took taken it was fourth down for the game. He went to say Wilson, who came through with the big clutch catch. So this guy has definitely proven to be a valuable piece out

there for this offense. I think Michael Gallop overall is a better player and I'm definitely want to see how his impact is going to have on the rest of his trio. Receivers. Will it open up more looks for his Ceedee Lamb, will open up more looks for a Mark Cooper. But also it's just tough because what do you do with say said Wilson in that instance. I mean,

he's done a great job in the slot. He's done a great job of playing off of those two big time receivers on the outside, and we haven't seen Gallup playing a slot that much, like he's mostly an outside receiver. So I'm not saying, well that mess up the funk sway, but will it you know, will it clog things up out there? Because you know, Ceedee Lamb, he can play inside, outside, but the more you move him around is harder for

teams to double team him. So I think that was a nice piece for said Wilson to come in there and kind of get the slot duties there so he can play on the outside and teams don't have a good chance to double team them all like that. So I want to see what Michael Gallup can bring to this table. Tristan Hill, you know, hey, you know, I mean, you get a good rotational piece. I'm more excited to wait for Nevill Gallimore to come back, But I see

Triston Hills. Like me, it's basically a rotational piece. I think Diggi Zuoa has proven that he's a better defensive tackle than Tristan Hill has been. So to me, it's Michael Gallup. I'm really interested to see what he can bring to this table come Sunday. Yeah, listen, my man, my man Church brought the fung says it's a speech. Okay, all right, Uh, I think this is easy. M I'm excited to see Michael Gallup. Um. Kind of different from how Church thinks about it, because I think Michael Gallup

is is our true deep threat. Um. He's usually that guy who's making those deep catches. And I think Ceedee Lamb is more dangerous, like you said, when he's able to move around. I think the same for Mark Cooper. Now that you see that Cede Lamber can also play on the outside, him and Mark Cooper are interchangeable. Which one do you want to put in the slot? Which one do you want to put outside? Make defenses figure out how they're gonna double team and who they're gonna

double team. And oh, by the way, now you got your deep threat back right. Those deep balls that Ceedee lamb that were missing last week. Those are the ones that Michael Gallup has been catching and you've seen them doing it so and I think he's gonna come back hungry as long as he's one hundred percent healthy. I'm really really excited to see him back in this offense. I think it's gonna bring a new level to us.

And shout out to Tristan Hill. I think he's gonna be okay, Gator roll if he's continued to get better like he was at the last training camp and he gets away from that Gator role, I think he'll be okay. And you know, based off our run defense played last week, we can use we can use some help, So hopefully that turns out to be good. But I'm really excited to see Michael Gallop back in the offense. Yeah, Michael

Gallo's gonna be extremely hungry out there. I mean, this is a guy who missed so many weeks out there, he's seen said Wilson ball out. He's in a contract, yees, so he knows he's gonna have to when he gets back in these opportunities, he's gonna have to take advantage of him. So think it right, man, that Michael Gallop coming back, it should provide, you know, the dividends for this offense. But I'm more interested to see how he comes back and how he responds to that injury, and

can he become a better football player. You know, I'd like to see Triston Hill add something to this defense. We saw how the Broncos had forty one rushes and and and they're two running backs went wild on the Cowboys defensive There's some more help that you can have a fairly remember bring Rban rban and has been out

missing some time here. I think this can ultimately, as I start to look toward the December January run, the Cowboys team can be able to make Having as many guys which can be in a rotational atmosphere upfront for this defense, I think will help one thing I wanted to talk about. We can even dive into it more, but at least wanted to start in the conversation. Today's you guys are former players, how do you feel about Calvin Ridley and seeing his situation where he stepped away

from football to deal with mental health. With Julio Jones being gone, so many people thought that Calvin Ridley was going to step into a superstar status role this year, but he has taken some time away to work on himself and deal with his own issues. Danny, I'm gonna give him some props because you know us as us as football players, we've been doing this our entire life,

all right. So you see a lot of guys who retire and they cannot find a way to stay away from the from the game, and then when they are separated from the game, that they're not able to do anything else. So you see, sometimes that can go really really bad for him. Yeah, So the fact that he can look at himself in the mirror and say, I need to step away from the game. Takes some time away from this so I could work on myself. I think that takes a lot of a lot of heart.

I think it takes a lot of courage for him to be able to do so. So come back right right that because football is just one part of your life, all right. You got a long you got a longer life to live when it's over with. So make sure that your mind and your body are in the right place to continue to be there for your family and friends more than it is for you to you know, play your five or six years, you know, in the NFL. So shout out to him for doing that and uh,

you know, praying for them. Yeah, I definitely gotta give him a shout on this one because you know, you know, playing football, all we're todd is, Oh, you're not hurt, your masculine, your a warrior. You don't need to show your feelings like that. You know, you'd go out there and forget all that it's all about football, but like you're right, football is just a small portion of your life.

And then for him to go out there and let everybody know and kind of put his emotions and kind of be his vulnerabilities out there for everybody to know, it takes extreme courage to do that. I mean, he sat there and he realized that he couldn't give his team one hundred percent. You know, his mind wasn't in the area. He was mentally checked out, and he needed to focus on himself a little bit so he can become a better guy, so he can be a better

guy for his football team. And like I said earlier, that takes extremely a lot of courage because you know that locker room can't be brutal, and we're taught to never show emotion or never show any type of weakness. And for him to go out there and say, look, guys, you know I'm dealing with some things. I need this to clear my mind before I'm able to get back and give you guys my all. It takes a lot

of courage. And shout out to him for that. So Calvin Ridley fantastic player, a guy I thought was gonna have a really breakout year, stepping away from mental health issues, and I hope he can find the piece he's looking for. We saw Lane Johnson offensive line with the Philadelphia Eagles, step away the same thing, trying to deal with mental health, and so I'm with you, guys, this is about your life. It's not just about football. And hopefully Ridley feels the

support from his own team. Yes, because you guys were in that room. You know how. You know how some coaches treated guys if they felt like you were injured or you couldn't help them. Some of these coaches wouldn't even look at players and they act like they didn't exist. So hopefully that young man feels some support from from his teammates. Yep. Wait, and I want to add one thing outside of my man Ridley, because I got to going on. I couldn't let this go. I couldn't let

this guy. Okay, let me tell you something. You were talking about what they're gonna do, and said Wilson technical Holly, Terrence still all right, they're gonna have a party, you know what, I'm saying, their own little party in the back, talking about how they feel about about being in there, improving, improving that they could play in the game. And then they ended up losing their spot somehow said a little different because Michael Gallup got injured. But they both gonna

have some bones to pick. And it's a bad precedent to start in your locker room knowing that you can do everything you're supposed to do, be in the right place, do all the right things, and still not be put in the position to succeed. And Terrence still wasn't put in that position. But what about said was do you They said Wilson deserves to being a spot. I even know Gallup he got the spot that hurt. No, Gallup got hurt is different. Okay, Gallop got hurt as different. Okay,

Leo Collins hurt mself. Yeah, he messed up and then Gallup got hurt, so he deserves the chance to chance get get his spot. Can't get Wally pipp But yeah, him and Terry still they're gonna be they have this conversation. We're talking back. Then the next picture you're gonna see if the Cowboys players out and about is gonna be them and Nicka SAMs. Can you believe I'll tell you what they I know how you feel. I know how you feel. An take a seat back, let's talk about

this man. This has been the players Lounge on a Tuesday. We will end it on that. Any McCray, Barry Church, our new restructure, Chris being well, Scott Aaron, everybody who's been a part of this, we appreciate. We'll check with you all Wednesday as we get ready for another episode of Survivor forty one with that guy Danny McCray a part of the Castle. We'll talk to you late, everybody. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.