Player's Lounge: Must Win In Washington?

Cowboys safety or other running buddy. Barry Church has decided that he's gonna take a little getaway vacation. Man. You know, Barry just rolling outlet like that. Send us to emails wanting, hey, fellas out hey when you when you listen listen when when when you get paid? How Jacksonville pay them? You could take a vacation anytime you want, first any time exactly. I mean he just you know, he rolled around like ti telling his wife you can go wherever you lie.

I mean yeah, yeah, Church and the Church gone. You know what he was really doing, He said, he was trying to celebrate that one win that he got last night. He's he's officially won and oh on this on the straight up picks, but he's on one on his cover and the spread picks, and he just trying to celebrate any win he could get it. And I understand because it's been rough for him, all right. So so follow me on Twitter. I'm at NEWI Scruggs. It's n E

w Y Scruggs. I tweeted it out yesterday. I'll retweeted again. So I make picks every week in the Dallas Warning News with several other people, and this week I decided that I would have Barry Church do all my pics. So we did it on the show. So we can go back and check out yesterday's show. So Barry did all the picks for me, and or it's Wednesday. I did it was Wednesday, and so Barry did all the pics.

So it's there in the paper. So I retweeted it and I had a media remember hit me up and D and me says, really, you were going with the cowboys. You still believe in the hot boys, and and so I sent him the D and back, I said, you didn't see my tweet. Barry Church did the picks this week. I've already made my pick, I said, and then I sent him the link to my TV pick. I said. So, so here's where where I went, and just so you all know, and let's just get the predictions right out

of the way. Church went twenty eight seventeen Cowboys to beat Washington. The Cowboys are one point favorite. I went with Washington to win twenty four twenty three. So that's what I did. So so Dmac, let's get it out of the way right away. Let'stop wait till the end. Let's go ahead, get your prediction right here for this football game between the one in five Washington football team and the two or four Cowboys. Man, you know, I

think it's gonna be one of those games here. Then we used to have back in the day where it was a lot of field goal kicking. So I'm looking at low scoring, something around the twenty three to twenty range for the Washington Oh sorry, the Washington football team. Make sure I get that right, so so we don't get in trouble here. So yeah, I'm going on Washington. I just don't believe that we'll be able to stop

the run. Our secondary still having problems. You know. I went back and watched something that that last played by Kenyan Drake when he ran sixty nine yards, and I just could not figure out why they were aligned the way that they were aligned. And then Nolan comes out and he's still a little frustrated and mad because he doesn't understand leither and that is a big issue. If he doesn't if he doesn't know what went wrong, that is a true serious problem. So I just don't think

we can get it fixed this week. So you're going twenty three twenty Washington. Yeah, okay, So you and I are basically right there together in terms of this of this win. I got twenty four to twenty three. I've got I've got Washington winning on a lake field goal. And I'll give the folks who are checking us out here. My biggest reason, which is what I said on my TV prediction, was the offensive line is a massive concern

for me. I mean, this is another game in which the Cowboys are going to roll out another different set of offensive lineman. And look, I'm no professional football player. I just played a little bit, you know, just played the high school thing, and I was a center, and I can tell you for sure, when you start having different combinations of guys and says this is a high

school level. You know, there can be some confusion, you know, when we weren't going against anybody good like you know, Chase Young and Mantest Sweat, like the Cowboys are gonna base. So when you roll out these different combinations and there's just little things where you know how to tell guys, well, how you need some help and what you need to do. You know, you may tell a guy, hey man, I

need you to give me a longer chip here. I mean, there's there's these little things within a football game to go on. And oh, by the way, you've got a different starting offensive line combination and this is Andy Dalton second start. There's just a lot of things that you're looking at here from a continuity standpoint that hurt the Cowboys, and this has been a strong point for the Cowboys all game. I bring this up also with the fact

that Zack Martin is probably not gonna plot. I mean that's coming from the head coach Mike McCarthy, also Jerry Jones who said it on one to five three the FAM he's been in concussion protocol. So their whole telling you probably it's pretty much in data. You know, the code words. He's not playing. Okay, So you're not going to have your all pro guard. You don't have your all pro, all decade left tackle, and Tyres Smith, who's out for the year. You don't have le College your

right guard. I mean, this thing is just falling apart. You don't even have your former starting center Joe Looney. You've got the rookie Tyler Beyond So connormer governor is going to step in for Zack Martin against Washington and Danny. You take that and look on the other side. What's the strength of Washington even though they're wonder five football team, what is their strength? It's their d line that five first round picks over there. Man, I will, I will,

I will say this. You know you listen. You know our new commendations on the offensive line, and then you also have the plugged that in like you said, with Andy Dalton, a new signal caller out there making the calls. And I can guarantee you one thing. We will get blitzed all night. They will test our offensive line, and we have not shown that we can pick up those blitzes. And we also haven't shown that we're willing to help out some of those old lineman with the chips and

bringing those tight ends in to help out. So all that adding up, we're gonna have a long day with our offensive line, so that I think that will be a serious issue. That's why I think that we need to run the ball twenty five thirty times, a lot of zeke, a lot of Tony Pallor, a lot of jet sweeps with Ceedee Lamb, a lot of jet sweeps with the Mark Cooper, some some bubble screens, some things to get the ball out quick to help these guys out. If we don't do that, then it's a for sure loss.

And I don't have any faith that we're going to do it because we haven't switched up. And we heard Killer Moore say last week that he doesn't think he need to change anything with Andy Dalton the game versus having back in there. So you know that that's why I'm leaning towards the decision that I made for Washington

won in the game twenty three to twenty. I'm still on this time of possession kick for the Cowboys, and I look at this defense and some of the issues they've had, and I go back to what you said in terms of trying to establish the run and using Ezekiel Elliott, take some time off the clock, help your defense out in this football game, and let me keep hammering away on this Washington football team. So I went and I checked it. Danny Washington Is got sixteen sacks.

So they got sixteen sacks and that's by nine different players. Ryan Kerrigan, who always seems to have some good games against the Cowboys, has three sacks this year. Montes Sweat has three sacks, and then their first round pick, Chase Young from Ohio State has two and a half. And when I look down there and I see that they've had nine different guys get sacks, that tells me that, going back to what you said, Jack del Rio is not only going to send the heat, He's got a

lot of different guys who can get home. What we saw in that Atlanta game was really Tat McKinley. Ta McKinley was the best pass rusher that they had, and once Tat McK only went out, they were okay. And Miles Garrett was really that one guy that Cleveland had. Washington's able to send several different guys at you, and that,

to me is something that worries me. So they not only need to run the football, but if you decide that you do want to pass, you know, if you get yourself caught in a third nine or third level situation and he don't got to get rid of football really quick because these guys are gonna be able to get home. So they Kella Moore has got to make sure he gained plans for that. You gotta get rid of that football quickly when when you're in these third long situations. Man, So so listen, and I want to

clear this up. I want to make sure everybody understands this. No matter what we have on offense, no matter who's playing quarterback, I still firmly believe in basing your offense off running the ball first and then having everything off play off that. So no matter no matter how we were playing, I will still say that Zeke needed to touch the ball twenty five times and then we need to do everything based off that. So it's just it's just more more to it now, like it has to

be done because you don't have Dack. You don't have the healthy offensive line to hold up and and and play a different way if you wanted to. So that's this is not just based on what we have now, this is what I believe in, you know, from from my days of playing and when when Jason Garrett was here, when Wade feels here, we ran the ball. We focused on that. So that's the way I see it, and

unfortunately other people don't see it that way. And you know, that's why we're sitting here, you know, movie a second place in the two and four, because we just can't figure out that that is the strength of our team. And it's I think it's ironic that we can't see that.

And we look at the production of Zeke and and somebody that we pay ninety million dollars and you don't say you don't the light bulb doesn't go off in your head lights it and say hey, we need to get this guy to Bostimore and get them involved in different ways. It's interesting you say that because you and I are looked at as these dinosaurs when we say this, and the so called analytics guys um that all throw the ball. Throw the ball. Okay, Andy Dalton, throw the

ball was fifty four times night football. I mean, you know, when you start looking at the Cowboys guys in quarterbacks through the games from from Prescott to eight min to Romo. When you're throwing at fifty plus times, I'll tell you what comes along with that. Pretty much every time you look at that those games and L and L, you've got to figure out how to run the football and with this defense to keep them off the field. Man,

I mean, you have to play complimentary football. You've got to call plays that compliment not just your offense but your overall football team. And when you don't do that, you just want, hey, let's just run plays. Run plays. Then I think you find the Cowboys and where they're at. You got a lot of big stats, you got a

lot of garbage time points and garbage time yards. But the competitive phase of the football game, you find yourself out of it where all of a sudden, if you're behind like this and double digit leads, they know what's coming. They're not worried about the run. They're just gonna sit around here, drop back, and then just say, hey, now guys are sitting around here hunting for interceptions. And we've seen that happen too. So I'm with you a hundred

percent about running the ball. But what's crazy is even when you're down double digits, depending on what points you are in the game, you still don't have to abandon the run. We've seen teams come back from down fourteen to twenty one points by still sticking with the run and then hitting those big players over top because you get some of those defensive backs and linebackers to step up, you know, trying to defend those those guys. Right, I'll

tell you this. Defensive backs and some linebackers they do not want to necessarily take on blocks and get pounded on by guys like Ezekiel Ellett. Derek can read. These guys that run hard and punish you at the end of runs and always fall forward. They do not want to do that the entire game. So the more that you can do that, the more that you can get in their head and wear them down, the more that you open up those deep shots so you don't have

to abandon the running. You get down fourteen points and you're in the first quarter. Yeah, the game is not dictating that you do that, and we seem to do that often, and that's why you see us with fifty four fifty four attempts and sixty attempts and forty five attempts because we abandoned it too early. Well, that's been

a problem under Mike McCarthy. It's also as a problem under Jason Garrett, where the offensive coordinators decided that, you know, just get away from the run as quickly as possible. I go back to the Atlanta game, and when the Cowboys ended up making that comeback, they ram the football. Zeke had ten carries in the second half. Okay, ten and that may not seem big to you, but he had over twenty in the football game. But they did not abandon the run, and they did exactly what you did,

what you're talking about day. They were able to kind of get themselves back in the football game and eventually win it. But they haven't done that since he's not getting those carries. Now, go back to the last game against Arizona. You're not getting carries because you're putt the ball on the ground, and so, yeah, they've lost their faith in him. But at this point in the season, no matter how frustrated anybody may be with Ezekiel Elliott, he's the best of what you got left. You're going

to have to figure this out. And when it comes to ball security, let me read you what Mike McCarthy had to say today. He said, if anything, we've probably leaning towards over coaching in that area of ball security. Something I'm conscious of the question is the answer says, you gotta make sure you stay on top of it. So this is and I'll give I'll give Mike McCarthy this one thing. You go back to his record in

Green Bay. They were good when it came to turn over margin and right down the Cowboys the worst in the league at fifty minus fifteen. Listen, and then and this whole thing with Zeke and the fumbling and all that. I do not understand how people could all of a sudden lose faith. And we can talk about, you know, putting Tony policy and all this stuff. Listen, the guy fumbles.

He's going through a rough patch. But if you put together his body of work and and and you see what he's done previously, and this is all it takes for you to give up hope on Zeke, then you haven't really digested what he's been able to do as a running back for us. They didn't pay him ninety million dollars for him to fumble, you know, five or six times, and didn't give up on him. The guy

is still an elite running back. If you watch the way that Tennessee plays, no matter what the score of the game is, they believe that Derek Henry can always break the long run. Zeke is still that guy. He can still get you a seventy eighty yard run or forty yard run and get you down on the other teams side of the field quickly. So it's not like he's not able to still do that. Yeah, he fumbled, he can get over that and he can still be the same guy. This does not take away from what

Zeke is, the type of player that he is. He can still get this stuff done, and I think we still need to lean on him no matter what he's done in a previous few games. He can still carry this team and we've seen him do it before. I go back to what Mike McCarthy took the football job, and I was there at the Presscomberence. So at the time, Mike McCarthy thought, you know, he'd have Travis Frederick, he doesn't Travis retired. Thought he'd have Lell Collins. He hasn't

hadn't played all year long. So if there's your your center gone, your right tackle gone, thought he'd have Tyr Smith. He's out for the season now, so your left tackle's gone. Thought he'd have Zack Martin this week. Your right guard is gone. Thought he'd have Blake Jarwin as his tied end. And Blake Jarwin ends up going on the injured reserve of the torn acl Thought he have Dak Prescott is

a quarterback. Dak Prescott breaks scle quarter is going. You start looking at all these guys you thought you were gonna have, and we're talking about Pro Bowl players here that are gone. You start looking around at what's left. You better figure out how to take advantage of what you have and who's there. And to me, this would be and should be a feed Zeke game plan. Man, we're not good on the defensive side of the ball. We gotta go ahead, in my mind and take face

in your Washington team. That's a one win team. You gotta figure out how to make Ezekiel Elliot a major part of the game plan. You and I are right there together here, because, dude, how sad is it that you and I don't believe they could be the one win football team at who? I don't think I really don't think it's that it's not rocket science, right Listen. Like for all the stuff that we don't have on offense, we still have a lot of weapons, you know what I'm saying, that we can go to. So you can

still get the ball to Cede Lamp quickly. We saw the Rams do that with Robert Woods and Cooper. You can still get the ball to Amari Cooper quickly, get it in their hands and see what they can do with it. After they get the ball in the hands, you can still get the ball to Zeke. You can throw it to him, you can pass it to him, you can do whatever you want to. It's creative ways to get these guys the ball to where you don't have to necessarily throw it down the field fifty or

sixty yards. You can still get this done because when you run a jailbreak screen or a two yard out or you know what I'm saying, a quick hitch, that's an extension of your run game. We still count that as run plays where you can you know, saying you get four or five yards on first down, that that is positive yards and Zeke is still getting four yards to carry. So it's not rocket signs. We can still get it done. We just have to focus on it. All right, let's get in a break right here. You're

check out the Players Lounge. We are in our SWBC Mortgage Virtual Home studios. I'm new He Scruggs. He is Danny mccraig. When we come back, there's some news that I've found kind of interesting. Some people were celebrating it, thinking, hey, look this shows you how effective to take lawrence has been. And I've got a different opinion. So let's get to that after the break right here on the Players Lounge on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hey, they're Cowboys fans

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by Danny McCree so. Earlier in the week, James Later of NFL Network UM put out a report where several players complained about the Cowboys coaching staff, saying that the Cowboys coaching staff would not prepare and that they're not good at their jobs. So Shaun Lee tried to come out this week, and we hadn't heard from Shaun Lee all year loans and they put Shawn Lee on a zoom callers. Shawn Lee tried to say there was no

issues in the locker room. Ja Smith said that the Cowboys coaches and players coaches, and what do you have now here, Danny mccraie, what's being said. Yeah, we got Laton Vanders coming out saying that, you know, he said, you know, I think if you're gonna put that out there and you should put your name on it, and if you don't, then you're absolute cowards, some coward as simple as that, And that echoes the same thing that that that we all pretty much said earlier earlier this week.

But we were just waiting on somebody to come out and be straight candid with it and let let their teammates know that if this is something that you did, that you are called for doing it and you should have put your name on it. And I think the entire team should be echoing this. So whoever did it could feel like absolute crap uh. And it was set a set an example for something that you shouldn't be doing in the locker room where you would have to

answer for it. So I'm absolutely proud that that Vanderess did that, and hopefully some other guys can can step up and say something, say something toward the two. Okay, So having been a player how is this addressed amongst teammates? Man, it's listen, I hadn't been in that situation because we've never had that that I've known of guys who would actually go out and do something like that and be anonymous source. But if I was in there, um, it's

just a tough thing. You have to call the entire team in there, have one of those team meetings again, and you're pretty sure that the person's not gonna stand up and said was them, But you have to let it be done that that is unacceptable and everybody should,

you know, speak out against it. If they're asked about it, then they should knock it down, just like Lake Vendor is this so you don't have this issue because like we said earlier, this like creates a whole bunch of distrust within the locker room, and that's one of the things you don't want within your team, especially in a

situation where the sink is shipping the sink. The ship is sinking a little bit and you're trying to get these guys on the same page so they can finish out the season with a running record, hopefully and make the playoffs. What does this say about Mike McCarthy and his staff that this early on they have guys who have that little amount of respect for them that are going this route. In Jason Garrett ten years here, we

hadn't seen anything like that. Yeah, listen, I really won't say it's that bad, just because of the situation that we're in with COVID, and these guys hadn't been able to be around Mike McCarthy as much as they had hoped to have him and kind of get that relationship with him and see, you know, how he is and how he wants to run things. So they only got there I think maybe at the end of ju Lot beginning in the August, so they'd been there for maybe a month and a half or two before they really

got started on football. So they don't really know him. So I don't really take that much from them now, But at this time, if it happens again, then it shows that they hadn't learned from them and they really don't have that much respect for him. It can happen once just because of this situation is a very extreme and different situation than we're in. But if this continues, then the respect lovel is very low for the coaching staff or whatever coaches they are actually talking about now.

Mark Arthey has spoken about, you know, trying to to you know, have a new coaching staff and and you know learning that and then also you know, being new here with these players in the locker room. How much of that is a legitimate reason versus an excuse Because I look at the Carolina Panthers, who I expected to be one of the worst football teams in the NFL. That has not happened. They've been a good team in the factor. They handled Arizona and Charlotte about two weeks ago.

And then I look at Cleveland. Cleveland came in here, Kevin Stefansky, brand new coaching staff, and they punched the Cowboys right in the mouth. And they look like a totally different organization from what we've seen in the past two seasons. So that's why I come back to Mike McCarthy. You've got some issues here, but you have something that Cleveland and Carolina what we felt at the beginning of the year. You had the better you had the better squad,

you had more talent. So how is it that they're looking more competitive? They're not turning the football over the way you guys are, So how do you see it, Danny, Well, that's the thing about football, man. You know, a lot of rosters look great on paper, but once they get together and start playing as a team, things are a little different and these type of things come up. Man. You know, turnover margin, it's a huge thing, but sometimes you know, those things do come in bunches and the

team isn't playing as well as they should. I think the biggest thing for us is that the coaching issues right, because if your players don't have trust and the coaches, then that's a bigger issue. Then then you turn the ball over. Because you can get those turnovers fixed, guys can focus on a little bit more through the rest of the season. You could possibly not see Zeke fumble.

You could, you know, tone down on the interceptions. But the trust and the coaches, especially now that the difference between Cleveland and what was the other team that you mentioned, the difference between when them and Cleveland and Carolina, we're losing. Carolina went on to win three straight at one point,

Cleveland's four and two. We, on the other hand, we haven't been able to get this thing together, and only two teams that we beat, our teams that were bad and we almost lost to so you know that had no wins, They had no wins the TP. Yeah, it's it's it's different, different circumstances here, and we could have easily lost those games playing over six. So it's just a different circumstances for us. Uh. And when you're losing that,

those things start coming out a little bit more. Okay, So what's the hope really at this point in time? If you're if you're the if you're the coaching staff, you're the team, what is the hope for you right now? What do you hang your hat on? You know, how do you try? How do you try and fix this thing? Because it's it's bad from several reasons. It's bad because the scheme clearly the guys on defense haven't figured it out, and then the injury factor has hit this team on

both sides of the football. Listen in football, in every locker room, no matter what your record is, no matter how bad you're playing, how good you're playing, a win can fix all, no matter who you're playing against. I guarantee you this. If they come out and they beat Washington, they will have a whole different attitude about themselves. If they play well, and then you might see a whole

turn different turn to the season for us. If we come out and lose, then the hope for this is, you know, hopefully these guys can stick together and you don't see a lot of infighting in there and guys starting to play for themselves, worried about, you know, their their own food futures and you know, trying to make these plays outside of the system, just so they can make sure that they paid their stats and they're prepared to go on to another team, because that's something that

players do worry about. You know, you come out here, you got a new coaching staff, and then all of a sudden, the record is bad and the stats are bad, and then you hit the free agent market and they're saying that you sucked just because you know, you played on that bad team and it was it was a bad year for you. So when you start playing this way and you start having to lose the record, those type of things seep in the minds of the players. So that's one thing that you want to try to avoid.

A win can fix it off. Although I still don't think we will beat Washington, Okay, Danny, I'm looking at this next five game stretch for the Cowboys. It's really the critical point of this season here. So at Washington this week at Philadelphia, and that's a Sunday night football game, so the nation's going to be able to watch this game here. And then it is a home game against at Pittsburgh Steelers, a road game against Minnesota, and then

a home game against Washington. So you're looking at Washington, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and then another game against Wash. So four the five next game four five next football games or against teams

that have issues that are losing football teams. And if they can't figure out how to beat these losing football teams, it can get rough the rest of the way because after Washington, these are the next five games the end the season at Baltimore, at Cincinnati home against the forty nine ers on Sunday night football home against the Eagles, and then on the road against the Giants. So I gotta say, man, by December, we're gonna know exactly where this team kind of is in terms of of any

hopes or what's going on here. And you know, I'm scratching my head right now. Maybe they figure out how to turn it around. Maybe they do, but but right now, and I just have so many question marks about the football team. No, listen, when when you think about this team, like I said, like we talked about earlier, you have to be really really honest with yourself and believe in

what you're seeing. Without Dak Prescott having an MVP type performance for those games, we are O and six, like we don't win a game, So we're really starting at the bottom here. And the thing is we're lucky enough

to be playing some of these teams. We got Kirk Cousins, we got and like I said this early, I'm not counting Philly out because somehow they always find a way to get back into at the end of the game, and then sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but they're always fighting and close at the end of the game. So we gotta play Philly twice, and we got Washington. All right, those are teams that we can beat, and we would say if we had that we should be.

But it's possible for us to not be any any one of those teams, and this season could be be worse off than it is. So from what I'm seeing, I don't have much faith in it, but hopefully we could pull off at least the two wins against Washington, Oh, at least. But it's it's listen, you believe believe what you see. Man, you gotta believe what you see, believe

what they showing you. Six games in they showed us that that they've gotten lucky and one of those two games and they fought off or a six, but it was mainly because of the heroic player of Black Prescott and he's not here. So we have to see Andy don't do something serious and Kellen Moore really come up with a creative play sheet and stick to the ring game and base everything off that if we go any any way outside of that, we're not going to win.

For many years, people have told you how basic football is, that it's won in the trenches. And going back to what you said, just what are you seeing? Well, the Cowboys are not good up front on the offensive line or defensive line. And if you can't control those areas, you can't win football games. And when I look at Washington said it earlier, start to show their defensive line is a concern. They've got five first round picks there. You look up, they've got six sacks by nine different players.

You know what Jack del Rio is going to do. If you've watched these Philadelphia games, yes they are two four and one, but they gave Pittsburgh all they wanted. You know, you go and you look at some of these losses here um, even in the games where they were behind, I mean, I thought Baltimore had these guys handled, okay,

but they came back and they fought against Baltimore here. Um. Look there, their schedule gets a lot easier and defensively right up front, I don't think the Cowboys can beat them. And so for me, at this point in time, and I've said it weeks ago, I think Philadelphia is going

to win this division. It maybe a losing record, but I think Philadelphia will win this division because the Cowboys have yet to show us from a defensive standpoint that they can stop some folks, and they got to show us they can win also win a game on the road. This is a team that has not won a road game this year. Both wins came at home, and as we talked about, they would come back wins and a couple of gifts along the way that the Cowboys you know,

in some ways created their own luck. But still you needed some heroic to happen in dak Prescott. The hero is not here. So looking at this game against Washington, I'm very concerned. And maybe these guys come out here show some pride and they hear all the negativity. Maybe that's the rallying point that they feel the people have giving up on them, and the Cowboys come out and respond.

But right now, man, if we're just as you said, if we're just being realistic and what do our eyes tell us, all I can go by is what I see is Bill Parcel said, Cowboys are winning up front. You can't win up front. You can't win in the National Football League. Yeah, listen, And like you said, we're not winning up front. And the one player that stood out to me, like I said, was the Kenyan Drake play.

We have nine guys in the box and all of the linebackers and safeties are misaligned outside of their gaps, and you got two guys in one gap, you got a safety shooting the wrong gap and they break it for sixty nine yards and the defensive coordinator sitting there and he's scrapped in his head because in his mind, he taught that, he taught it. Hey, man, listen, this is the gap you got. All you gotta do is in front of you is a d libent in that gap. That is not your gap. It is at that point.

It is as simple as that. And they didn't get that right, and it costs them a sixty nine yard t D run. And those are the issues that you have. You can't line up in the right gap your deepensive line to get pushed back to the linebackers. You can't stop the pass. You got to figure out how to do one of them, Like you know, the season is going to learn how to do one and give yourself a chance to win at some point during the season.

All right, analytics, let's dive into that and point to something where it looks as though Tank Lawrence should be praised. Should he? Let's dive into it next on the Player's Lines right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio since eighteen sixty five. Steps and Hats are American made with pride right here in Texas and steps and is proud to be on the fields with America's team. Want to

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the players. Loud Unified Worldterweight World Champion Errold the Truth Spentz Junior will duel two Division world two time division world Champion Danny Swift Garcia in a blockbuster main event on Saturday December at and T Stadium. Get your tickets now before they sell out. At seat geek dot com, you were in the Player's Lounge, brought to you by Hotels dot Com Knwe Scrubs joined by Danny mc craig. Danny m Create, a long time former Dallas Cowboy player

and longtime remember the organization now works for them. I'm just merely a reporter who covers the team mills analytics, and this is something where I am not against analytics at all, but I also don't look at analytics and say, well, this is how it has to be done. I think you've got to use your eyes and you take the information analytics gives you, and it can help you form

an opinion. But I don't believe that you have to go by what the math sheet says, because numbers can be twisted and turned into anything that you wanted to be. I bring that up because Pro Football Focus is something

a lot of people like the reference. When I talk to different scouts and different coaches at times, they'll tell they'll look at me sideye, they'll just start rolling, you know, roll when you started talking about these analytics, aid pro football Focus comes up with because they are also talked about situation. He's like, what does the situation call for? When they came up with these numbers. So they came out with something this week called pass rush win rate,

and they had their top four guys. T J. Watt of the Steelers was number one at twenty six percent. Miles Garrett of Cleveland number two, at twenty three percent. You had Khalil Mack of the Chicago Bears number three at twenty two percent, and then you had Tank Lawrence number four at twenty one percent. So pass rush win rate and you had a lot of people, including our own Kyle Yeoman's here Dallas Cowboys dot com. You catch out his his went of his podcasts talking cowboys and

he was like, hey, look, Tanks are doing well. We shouldn't beating up Tank. And I come to this and say, all right, let me check with Danny and you give me your take on this. TJ. Watt, Miles, Garrett, Kalil Mac, Tank Lawrence all top four in past rush. When rate your thoughts, Uh man, you look like you said numbers numbers can be misconstrued and put together to show anything that you want. I think we all know that, uh And Tank himself knows that he hasn't played up to

his capability and he needs to play better. And so I don't really understand, you know, what goes into that and how he could be top four, especially with how our defensive playing is playing. We haven't stopped the pass and we haven't stopped to run. So I don't I don't really understand how that how that can be. With that being said, um there, maybe there's something to it. I don't think he's playing as bad as um as

we think he's playing. I think he's playing okay. But the same thing I said about the Mark Cooper, the same thing I said about Zeke the same is the same thing I'll say about Tank. And you're making a hundred million dollars. Uh, you know that that's not good enough? Like the stats have to be how many sacks do you have? How many teams? How many games as your team winning? Are you a guy that's that the offense

is focusing on to stop? Are you wreaking having? If you're not doing that, then then you're not living up to your price tag? Are you potential? So he needs to play better. I come to this conclusion when for the people who are trying to say, hey see it's more than sacks, it's more of this and more that, I'm like, No, I don't care about the pass rush win rate. I want to see what is the pass rush? What is the pass rush finished rate? You t J Watt number four, I should say he's number nine in

sacks in the NFL with four to a half. Miles Garrett number two in sacks right now with seven. Khalil mac number nine, tied with t J. Watt in sacks with four and a half. Tank has one that makes him number one thirteen in the NFL. I'm sorry they didn't pay you to be Anthony Spencer to almost get to the quarterback. They paid you to be DeMarcus Ware and get to the quarterback. The same thing that I

argue with people about Byron Jones. A lot of these analytics people will look at Byron Jones's numbers here and they're like, look, you don't pay a dude at the highest ranked corner in the game if you don't get if you don't take the football away, that's what you pay these guys. And this is this is once a getting it. This is my opinion. When I'm paying guys, I'm paying Tank Lawrence, I need you to sack the quarterback. If I'm paying a quarterback, I'm paying you to get

your hands on the ball. That's how I'm paying these guys. If I'm paying a quarterback, I'm paying you to put a team on your back. That's what I need you to do. That's how I'm looking at paying guys. You go ahead, so so you get So this is this is the trap that Church fell into when he was talking about Buddha Baker and he was like, man, Buddha Baker, I think he had like one career interceptions or no career in the suptions that he became the highest paid

safety in the league. And then we watched him play against us and we're like, oh, man, that's the guy that what we see why Because it's more than just getting interceptions for him. He did end up getting getting the pick in the game, but he changed the whole dynamic of the game by what he was able to do. And I think the same thing goes for Byron. All of a sudden, you say, look, do we want picks or do we want guys to be covered down the field?

And Byron was the guy who was was was locking down of the opposing the number one receiver, and although he wasn't getting picks, he was a guy that you didn't have to worry about like we were worried about. Now. So you know, you can you can pick either one. But if i'm pick in the corner, I want a guy who's going to eliminate the opposing team's number one receiver and we don't have to worry about him. That way,

we can focus our defense on everybody else. So I think Byron deserved to be one of the top paid corners in the league, even though he didn't get a lot of in the sessions, the same way Buda Baker deserved to get paid like he did because we see it in the way that he changed the game for us. And see that's where you and I different. I'm not going to pay for that. Um Now, I want to make sure I say this clearly. I'm a fan of Byron Jones the player, and I'm an even bigger fan

of Byron Jones demand. I feel like the Cowboys messed this thing up because they should have locked him up probably two years ago, and you could have got him at a much better price. But they allowed him to go to the marketplace because they were still trying to make sure they can get the receiver quarterback signed, and so they didn't have enough money to sign him, and of course he got paid the highest, got the biggest

contract ever for a quarterback. If they signed him two years ago, they could have got him at a much better price, it would have made sense. But once they let him go to the free agent market, you knew they weren't gonna be able to pay him. And I wasn't gonna be one of the guys that says, hey, I'm gonna make him the highest paid guy in the game. That's how I felt about him, which is where from a money standpoint, the kesse the Cowboys messed that up.

I feel like the Cowboys were ill timed on Byron Jones. I thought they were ill timed on Amari Cooper. Thought they were also ill timed on Tank Lwins. These are deals that they should have got done a lot earlier. They waited till the end, and they couldn't get these guys, and at the price tag for oh yeah yeah, Dak Prescott too. But I was gonna say for all three guys, if you look at the deals they signed right now,

I don't think that. I don't think the Cowboys. I don't think the Cowboys won even in losing, you know, losing Jones, you didn't win because you lost a good player, but you didn't sign it in Tank. You gave Tank all that money, and look to me, the with the whole Tank deal was. Had you taken t J. Watt instead of Taco Charlton, you'd have been in a better position where you could have done one or two things.

You could have seen the potential of t J. Watt and said, you know what, Tank, this is our number and if you don't want it, we'll let you go. And then you had t J. Watton, you could have replaced him, but they had nowhere to go, so they had to pay the twenty million dollars number to Tank. And that's that's that's not getting it right from in my opinion, from a salary cap standpoint. And then the same thing with Cooper when you trade it for Cooper,

why did he have a the owned place? Why did you wait for him to hit the free agent market? And then with Dak Prescott should have taken care of him that that training camp before he went into his rookie year. So these are issues where they have failed. But I just would not have paid Byron Jones as the highest paid corner in the game. Okay, I wouldn't have done it. Okay, so tell me this how and I'm gonna add one player. But I think Byron is

this important? How different do you think that this defense looks with Byron Jones and Jeff Heath in the lineup. Oh, it's different. I mean, we can't even act like it's not. It is different. I mean these are two players that that in my opinion, these are two good football players. But it's all about the price tag and the way the Cowboys. The Cowboys approached these things and and they let can't forget they let Zeke jump out of line

of what they thought they were going to pay. But these were mistakes that were made by the team and in the timing of how they paid the guys. And at the same they were late. Every time you're late, the price tag goes up. And in Byron's case, the price tag was going up so high that you aren't going to be able to pay it. And it really kind of came down to two things here, Cooper Jones, when you say I'm write about that, it kind of

came down to one of the one of the two players. Yeah, and they took and they took and they took Cooper. And I think it's crazy because they, like you said, they watched the price go up each year on Byron, they watched him become a better player from playing safety to play corner. They watched this with their own eye and didn't figure out the way to get this thing done.

They could have made him one of the highest play corners and not have to do what Miami did to do that if they would have paid them on time. So I don't think that made sense. But I think right now that they regret not having him on the roster. I think they regretting not having Jeff Heath on the roster because those are two leaders in the locker room who probably wouldn't have put up with some of the stuff that's going on, and I think for them some type of price tag would have been worth it for

what they're seeing right now. Can I give you a name of another guy that I have to look at now and say, you know I was wrong about that's Malie Collins. Mallie Collins was a guy they allowed to go to the Raiders and I will be I raised my hands those guys like, yeah, now you can let him go. Um, you know what Malie Collins Malick comes was that hed come a lot better than than what I'm watching out here from Don Terry Poe and what we saw from Tristan Hill and even from what we've

seen from Tyron Crawford. Um, and you know, I look right, then there's a guy. There's a guy they paid and you talk about just regretting the money. It's Tyrone Crawford who's through injuries and just it's not been what he's he's been. So they've been to missus here and how they've taken care of their roster with some of these

guys giving them contracts extend. And I'm still putting a lot of this on the effect of Rod Marinelli because, like I said, a lot of these guys look so bad because they are not putting forth one hundred percent effort for the entire game. And it's it's standing out, especially when you have a guy next to you that's going harder than you are and you watch somebody on the previous play give one effort. It shows, and it shows in their playing. It shows and their ability to

make those plays and make those tackles. All of a sudden, if you're jogging and a guy breaks a fifty yard run, it looks more obvious because you're jogging, but you could have made that play. You could have looked like a top notch player. But because of your effort. You look like a subpart player. And that's what I think. That's what's happening with a lot of the players on our defense. So let me come back to this, Danny, and yes, Mike Nolan gets a big hit on this from a

lot of people. But you're a guy in the room. You guys are in the meeting room together in a position group. Don't people say something to each other to the standpoint of, Hey, I'm not here giving mine effort. That's not your best effort. Man, If you're gonna come out on this football field with me, I need your

best effort. Is that not set in the locker room when we see the kind of performances we're seeing on take Well, yeah, we didn't have those issues though, right because you gotta remember I played with d Ware, I played with Jason Winden. I played with some guys that go out there and say, hey, they say follow me, and and the thing the sad part about it is Sean Lee is that guy. But he's not able to

be on the field at the time. I believe he was out there on the field, and once he is able to get back out there, I think things will change, you know. But like I said, when him being on the sideline, it's kind of hard for him to be that that leader out there on the field. I think they'll change once he gets out there, but they got to follow somebody and somebody has to be that guy to step up. And I'm still waiting for but I

think Tank can still be that guy. Jalen said he would, but then I saw him, you know, turn around and do something opposite the week after that. So we were just waiting for Sean Lee to back to show that leadership. Oh okay, okay, So let's end the show by going back over our predictions. Here as the Cowboys getting ready to go to Washington. Church says Cowboys twenty eight seventeen. McCray says Washington twenty three twenty I have Washington winning

by a point twenty four twenty three. That is the players. Lads, we'll talk to you on Monday. I'm newly scrugs. He's Danny McCray. We'll have buried Church rejoin us on Monday. We appreciate everybody who's a part of the show. So many people behind the scenes working hard here at Dallas Cowboys dot Com. We will chat to you chat with you on Monday. Take care. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.