The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Cowboys.
This is the Players Lounge, broadcasting live from Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the Star. Now your hosts Barry Church, Danny McCrae, Hecma Harrison and Newi Sdrugs.
It's a Halloween spook tack yellow playerund.
Look at the lights, man, it'll change the umpions. And I didn't even know the John did that? Turn oge on you Dallas do anything? I mean, what other color can they? Can they get it? I don't even want Christmas's.
Going on everywhere? Man, want to know s w BC. Yes, it's a lot.
It's a lot of spooky stuff going on in the building. But you know what it is another It's another Tuesday here on the Player's Lounge.
You're now slocking with the best.
I'm heck Maharrison and that's Danny McCrae in a chucky outfit.
Man.
We got told, we got everything, chucky man.
You man, I brought a special guest.
You know, I want to come hollandy' all on Halloween. He only come out once.
I really don't seriously, I don't even know how I feel about that. You better not say nothing.
You talked to him. I don't want to. I don't want no problem me me neither.
Barry Church is in the building on on a Tuesday Monday night.
Football went off last night.
And Danny McCrae, O the others the other boy, you know what I'm saying talking about it's so cold in the d Yeah.
Detroit, Detroit, they look good.
I don't know Jared go, you know, he he came out, had a little rough on at the start, but after that, man, Saint Brown, that dude is he's the truth real, I mean, and then you got Gibbs got out there over like one fifty.
Montgomery not even playing.
I know that brings the physicality to it. When you put Montgomery in there. My tight end, tight end Laporte different they were and the defense is playing well. So, I mean, we knew that every team in the league is likely going to go through one of those games where you're like, oh, man, I don't know what happened. I think that game for the Detroit Lions was last week, and they came out and looked like they knew that they needed to get back on track and that's what they did.
And port Davonte, Man, you hate to see it.
Man, he should have had a sixty yard should have had a seventy yarder.
They just can't get the ball to the man. Man, Garopolo, Man talk the drop off. I mean, this is a guy that's gotten chance after chance after chance, even after that Super Bowl Super Bowl lost where they seemingly added in the bag. All they needed was Garoppolo to either make one more throw, hand the ball out one more time. And man, people just continue to believe in this guy. They write them checks for him.
I don't know.
I don't know if it's his state, they paying him for the stadium walk, what they what they're doing. But man, those two that one ball that he threw, it was so bad. I mean he overthrew, missed and missing wide open. But let me tell you something that that Detroit Lions defense is for real. They are legit. But that secondary it could be had, it can be I see it.
I see.
So when y'all got finished, when y'all got finished watching the game, I know I had my thoughts about Detroit and I just want to put eyes on them and just see him in real time. How they played. I was impressed. But where are you putting them right now as far as in the NFC, even with the way that San Francisco is playing at how everybody is right now mid season? Would you rank Detroit as your number one in the NFC right now? No, I think I got them at The Eagles are at number one, Okay,
they lost one game so far. They know how to play, you know, from behind, ahead, whatever it is they need to do, the figure out the way to win. I think Detroit, like I said, they went in the opener, they beat Kansas City, and no matter what happened with Denver, they went up to Kansas City and they beat Kansas City, okay, and they've been playing good and getting better ever since.
Besides that one little low that they had. So to me, Detroit probably number two, number two because it was San Francisco and they didn't drop three straight okay, so they haven't been able to lose and then get back on track.
So Detroit number two.
Then you got us that that was Cowboys out here sitting at number three, and then you got the Seahawks. But you think about that, as I name those four, we gotta play three of them and one of them twice. Absolutely, And that's the big thing about where you see the Cowboys right now in the schedule, that you got some tough games coming up in between with the Carolina, with the Giants.
I think that's the only relief that you have after that, Dug.
It gets real. It gets real with this season. But one of the big things that we brought up about this show today was the identity of the Downs Cowboys and just seeing like now over the last six games that we that we have seven games that we've seen from them so far. The season started without us actually knowing who they were. I think after seeing them seven games in sample size, but I think there's an identity looming and growing right now from two you guys, two X players.
What do you believe that that identity is? And BC, I start with you. Yeah.
I thought going into this season the formula for success, because we saw the first two games, was you know, let Tony Poller eat a little bit. We're gonna live off of this play action and we're gonna ride you know, this defense, and the defense is gonna be the strength of this team. Now, I still feel as though the defense is the strength and we're only gonna go as far as that defense takes us.
But offensively, I think.
It went from you know, we're gonna ground and pound, control the clock, We're gonna be all that. So now I think it's kind of morphed and developed into kind of a Dak Prescott led offense when you talk about we're going to you know, live and die by his arm, and you know, for the past two weeks, I granted, you know, they went against the Chargers who had, you know, a terrible defense, and you know the Rams, who you know are Aaron Donald or bust have went against those
two offense or two defenses. But when you look at what the offense has been able to do, Dak Prescott has been extremely accurate. He's been able to move the football, and the rushing numbers have.
Gone way down. They've gone way down since the beginning of the season.
I mean Tony Pollard, I mean the last, you know, the three games before this this this La Rams game, he only had thirty four carries, and three of those games, all three games.
Thirty four carries.
So to me, I think this offense kind of morphed a little bit, and it's kind of going with Dak Prescott, who's the hot hand right now.
Now.
I don't know if that'll change. If you know, we go against a defense and it's going back and forth. We got to get more balanced for whatever the case may be. But I think the identity of this offense going from now going forward will be you know, Dak Prescott in his arm.
Yeah.
Listen, going into the season, listening to Mike McCarthy and all he said about we're gonna be a running team, We're gonna play to our defense. I know what the strength of our team is. I did expect us to be a running team. And the truth is, I think we tried. I think I think we did everything we could.
We tried.
We were talking about the running backs, talking about dowd Or, we was talking about Duce vun, we were talking about Tony Pollard, and start off the season just based off how the games were going. I'm looking at him saying, okay, we are. We're trying to run the ball and we play to our defense. And then we hit that wall.
Actually actually, because it's crazy, we ran in Arizona first, Arizona first, and then then we ran into that wall of like, okay, how do we play if our running game isn't isn't going as we expected to go, right, So I think we got it to the point of like trying to figure out what that was, and now I think it's led us to like not really having an identity, Like I don't I don't really know what what the identity of the offense is. If I'm a defensive coordinator, like what does this team want to do,
Like what do we need to stop? I don't really know what that is, And I don't know if that's a positive or negative. I think we'll figure it out. But what I do think is as you get deeper into the season and you start playing some of those away games in the cold, because a lot of our games right now have been inside, you know, warm well
and all that stuff. Once you start going out and it's thirty degrees outside, probably how it's gonna be this Sunday, you're looking at you saying, Okay, how do you play then? Because that's when teams like to really focus on running the ball because the ball doesn't travel as well. You know, you start see guys dropping passes. All the weather kind of affects you a little bit. So I think we'll see it we're gonna have to get back to the running game. But I don't know what the identity is.
I have no idea. You know, it'll take four weeks right now when week two of Dak Prescott led offense, and give me two more weeks up. If I see Dak Prescott do this for two more weeks, then we back to you know, when he was five thousand yards forty passes a game, and you know, we're putting the game on the shoulders. So you're saying that the identity is there is no ideentaity right right now.
I think we're in a transition.
I think I think we had an identity like what we wanted to be, and you saw us come out, try to run the ball and play to our defense, right kicking the field goals, not really scoring touchdowns in the red bumb red zone, but being okay with kicking field goal. And then you see that that didn't work as well as you were playing for too And now we come out and you're like, okay, the game for the Chargers, I don't know, maybe that's just how it
played out. But then you go on the bye weekend, you come out and then you see how they played then like I'm watching the first quarter, I'm like, I thought we was gonna be running the ball first down, second down. To see what we did on third nine. They they was running boots, that was doing the scene. So so they came out and it wasn't that same identity of like, we're going to be a physical running run the ball team.
Look at it, even when we jumped ahead, even when the Cowboys jumped ahead in that game, you thought, all right, it's time to you know, milk the clock down, get up out of here. Now you saw Prescott still out there slanging that thing, hitting Cooks, hitting the CD LAMB, beating his numbers big. It wasn't like, okay, you know, let's let's let's turn around, hand the ball off, get up out of here.
They were still exploiting that secondary for the rounds.
So, like you said, man, I think just this offense kind of developed and kind of evolved into a kind of a Dak Prescott, least for the past two weeks.
Question.
So I think, and I also think that you have to do that right because I think that's what kind of gets you in trouble in those first few games. So like you get up and then you play that. Okay, we're gonna run the ball, get the clock out, whatever. We don't have to try to work on our offense because we're just gonna be vanilla with it. And then you get into the next week, right, and then you're like, oh, wait, we didn't work on nothing.
We didn't.
We didn't really get the chance because we were playing playing smart and then this game you get up and you're like, nah, we still need to work. This is the best opportunity we're gonna have to make our offense get better and have our receivers in our quarterbacks clicking on all cylinders. And I think they took advantage of it. Shout out to Brandon Cooks, Shout out lamb. Michael Gallup played his part and and our tight ends as a whole. Galla played No. He played his part. Is what I said?
His part was two? Was it two for two?
He did?
He played his part. Miller, catch right there, Miller. That's what we needed, that's what we need. But I got a pom My question though franchise He ain't so y, y'all people do this because I wrote Jerry Madalon a long email on how to ask question since and not lead the witness.
Wow, I had to get in the lab.
I had, Oh you needed to because you may thirty five second man another thing.
So so Peep High framed this.
So basically, do you trust Dak Prescott the way that you're saying that the identity is Dak? Where is your trust level with Dak right now being the identity of this offense?
We talk regular season, I'm out of eight. When you talk about Dak Prescott regular season, what he's been able to do these past two games.
He's flowing, he's doing great.
But if you're asking me, am I gonna trust this come playoff time? Yes, if that's the case as of right now, I gotta say no, because we just go about what's new. He's saying time proof and consistency and what's happened. You know, since he's been in the playoffs each and every time he's gone in there, it hasn't been the greatest. When we talk about, you know, getting to that next level. Did he have a great game
against Tampa Bay? Of course, he lit him up five touchdowns, but then that very next week, you know, it was it was three interceptions.
It was kind of a no show.
So when you talk about playoffs, I'm not there yet, but as of right now, these two games building up.
Yeah, I'm confident. I'm confident going forward.
So we got we got a big matchup, all right, the Philadelphia's Eagles week.
That's what everybody's talking about.
You can't turn on the television without seeing Cowboys Eagles. But the biggest thing for me is the one on one matchups. It's a ton of one on one matchups in this game. You just go through the roster and I send them all out to you guys. But the one I'm gonna I'm gonna choose between the few that we have, Okay, I have the witness. No, no, not leaving the witness. I'm just giving giving you the choices that you have, all right, all right. Number one is
gonna be Mike McCarthy and Dak Versus Sirianni and Jalen Hurts. Okay, then we're gonna go Darius Slay, Ceedee, Lamb believe the other one.
What do we have? What do we have? Darius Slay Cede, Lamb, Gillians and the Slim Reaper.
I gotta get all right, Seth seth Uk Gilmore versus is the DeVante Smith. That's the that's two big matchups. Then you have a J. Brown versus Darn Bland another big match up. Now you have number left uh Lane Johnson versus Michael Parsons big matchup. Okay, how I mean guys, this is a This is a lot of different one versus one v one matchups. What's going to be the biggest one for you?
Guys? You want to go first, listen to me.
And we only do it one v one and you know what, you can go O line D line because because I know I usually do that, but like, like that is it?
That is it?
How do we start the game up against the l A rawms man the first that first drive, I was like, you know what we is about to be a day ever mind man Adrian Claiborne. When Tyra Smith didn't play, I was like, oh my god, this is about to be That's what it looked like. So so when you when you think about the Philly defensive line versus off like, what is our officive line going to look like once we get to the game.
Is Tyrn Smith healthy? Right? Is he going to play?
And then how do we handle guys like Carter and as a son Reddick. Yeah, we like, how do we how do we handle those type of guys, especially if we are now transitioning into not being the running team but essentially being a passengee, Like, how do you handle that?
You know?
With a team like the Eagles, I don't know, So to me, that is a group. But then the one on one I don't know, it's Gilly and Bland versus A J. Brown because because he's gonna move all over the place, and I don't think dan Quinn is going to have these corners traveling. I think they're going to stay on their side, So I think A J. Brown is gonna get work on both sides. So I think how our secondary matches up and is able to contain AJ Brown.
It's difficult to stop a guy like that, but don't.
Let him go crazy like one hundred and thirty five over the last you know, say five games, like the rest of these teams have been doing.
Figure out a way to stop them. That is the matchup to me when I.
Look at this game overall, man, I just I don't like it for the Ducts Cowboys because I mean, we all understand the NFL is it's a game about matchups.
It's all. That's all it is. It's a game about matchups.
And when you look at it, where do you see the Cowboys having an advantage at And when I look at it, I'm gonna got the skill positions. You talking about Philly's offense versus the Dads Cowboys defense. If you put a safety over the top, or if you got you know, too high to make sure Davontae Smith and A J. Brown don't go off. Okay, I see it that Actually see the secondary doing something like that. But then you're lighting the box. Then instead of having an eight man box, you down to a seven or a
six man box. And we all understand what Philly brings to the table rushing the ball.
Absolutely, that's an RPO read. That's down your throat. They going straight at you.
So if you do that, if you want to take away you know, the slim Reaper, and you want to take away AJ Brown, by having those safeties over top, you're gonna be lighting a box. And then if you try to bring those guys in there, like an extra safety, like a curse or a Donovan Wilson caught up in there, try to bring those guys into the box, then it leaves Bland and Gilly on one on.
One islands out there with a slim Reaper and a J. Brown. I don't like that matchup as well.
So to me, this game is about matchup, and I don't like what the Dalles Cowboys you're gonna have to do against the Philadelphias.
I'm not a big fan. So Dron has still not won you over. No good player.
He is a really good player, ball magnet the guys, you know, way better than what I ever thought he would be. But you're talking about going against possibly the number two receiver in all of football right now, who's been on a tear six straight games.
Who's better?
I mean Tyreek Hill? I can only throw out that's the only one. That's the only one. This guy's got six straight games of one hundred and twenty five plus yards.
He's a big, physical, jump ball go getter. So I mean it's gonna be a tough matchup. So either way, So how does how is? How does our then?
Because a lot of our secondary is depending on how our defensive line plays. That's right and right there to rest the passes. So I think the way that we helped that is Hey, Dan, Quinn, what type of looks do we have? We saw Micael over the center last game. How how much are you moving him around and then making his one on ones be something that then helps the Bland, Stefan Gilmore, Jordan Lewis and the rest of
those guys on the back end. I think your pastors has to come alive because if you don't get pressure, you look just like.
The San Francisco forty nine ers.
When they get pressure, almost unbeatable as far as defensively. When they ain't getting no pressure, they look just like any other team. And I think that'll be the same for us. And when I looked at the Rams game, to me was what's going to be how they were going to compete versus Philadelphia with Poka and Cup the matchup because you know what both of those wide receivers bring on the other side for a J. Brown and
DeVante Smith. Davante is a burner, He just flat out he can fly and and maybe they won't travel, but I think you depend on that matchup to be the same as last weekend because if those two guys can can hold their own, then that still allows you to do what you just talked about putting pressure on Jalen Hurst because then you can you don't have to lighten it exactly exactly, because otherwise you have to change too much of your defense.
You take the aggressiveness out of it.
You can't light the box versus a team that can destroy you that's top ten in the league and rushing like all of those things. And now you put their full arsenal up. And I'm sorry, I'm sure and dan Quinn I trust too, but I'm sure he's thinking the same thing. I cannot start this game by showing favorable coverage to either one of these guys, because if I do that, Jalen Hurst at this point in his career, he can read that.
I have to go back and check.
But I just don't see dan Quinn as historically being one of those guys who puts a lot of resources to one specific person versus depending on his ability to call the players at the right time and having his players in the right position. I just don't see us unless we out there just getting killed truths, which hasn't happened. I see him calling the game to where he helps when he cans when he can, but he's going to depend on the players who've been standing up for him.
This entire season. We haven't.
We haven't had a game where they just went out there and just got killed. Like you see are you running the dig routes and of a two or whatever covers we in and you see us get caught in that a few times. But outside of that, we have we have performed well yeah, yeah, I'm talking about turnovers, past break whatever it is. They have performed well against
any receivers that they've gone against. And that's including Cooper Cup and Nicole Pooka Nicole who we had said, hey man, they may be one of the top duos in the league. Let me go back to the trenches a little bit here, and let's go you know, Dallas's defensive line or their pressure versus the Eagles, who have an outstanding, outstanding offensive line.
And I think what we saw last week, the reason you know, Stafford couldn't get the Cup, he couldn't get to Pooka, Nicoua and those boys out there, was because we saw that pressure.
We saw what he was able to bring.
Did they have you know, seventeen sacks out there, No, but they were able to make life hard for Matt Stafford out there. So we fast forward to this game against the Eagles. We all know Parsons hasn't had the greatest of success against Lane Johnson on that outside. I mean that dude was one of the top tackles international
Football League. So if you're Dad Quinn, do you kind of use them like you did last week as far moving them around as a chess piece because there's not really a lot of weak links to this Philly offensive line. You talk about putting them, you know, over the center. You got Kelsey, who's you know, Hall of Fame center in that regard, So if you're Dan Quinn, do you move them around to try to find that best matchup or you kind of just leading over there with laying
john I mean, that's a tough one. My answer is literally, continue to do what you've been doing with Michael. Don't change it up. Don't change it up now, because I think that's what makes the defense so dynamic and you can bring pressure from so many different areas because right now, the Philly offensive line has to concentrate on where is
number eleven? Even with the guys that they have that are so good, the Kelsey's and the Johnson's and everybody else they are going to be susceptible, and you.
Got to ask your guys. You gotta ask your guys. Can you win your one on one matchup? Ol Sa, diggye Zee, You got have to win your one on one matchup. Tank, You're gonna have to win your one on one matchup because you're gonna have it because of the way that they move Michael round. Listen, let me tell you what I don't like about this conversation. Philly
is a running team. Like listen, listen, let's just get let's get back to that part of like, Okay, we talked about pass rushing and one on one for Michael and de Launa. They are a running team and if any team is going to force you to earn the right to rush the passer, it's going to be the
Philadelphia sequi. So, so what you're gonna need to do, because we're talking about like where you're gonna put Michael, there will be third downs where Philly decides they're going to run the ball against you, right, and if you sitting out there figuring out how you gonna pass rush and they ready to run the lead or draw or quarterback or quarterback option on you, read option, then you're
in trouble. Right, So this team here is going to force you to play play on this on first and second down, and if you get them in third and long, that's when you're gonna be able to then release the dogs on them. But if you don't, we talked about this before before the show start. Their running game is for real now for real, when game will for real? Like all like, they have a consistent way to attack these defenses, either with the running backs or quarterbacks or both, so.
Protect the run.
Yeah, big matchup and feel, and I completely agree with you on that. The other matchup for me that we didn't mention is Dak Prescott Jalen Hurts. This is these are two quarterbacks and the head coaches as well. All Right, people not giving Mike mccarthur his his respect. They didn't give it to him in the game versus McVeigh last week. They're not gonna give it to him this week if
he pulls out the victory. But the truth is for me that these two Dak and Mike, this is a big matchup for them because we keep asking the same question, what do you do when you come up against a team with a winning record and a team that has beat you before. All right, the matchup and you know
this is a litmus task. Well all these different things, but true and Drew, indeed, you finally got to get a signature win on your on your on your record when you lose, when you get embarrassed by the forty nine ers.
And this is again, this is that game.
Versus Philadelphia, a division foe that no matter how you look at it, it's Philly Dallas. We hate them, they hate us. We playing them in Philly. It needs to be a time game. But you know how big this is for everything that's going on around here, because if you have the same type of showing that you have vers the forty nine ers, Oh, you got to be twenty off the plane, right, you gotta be twenty out the plane. Dogs, you gotta have twenty out the plane. I mean for real.
Now, they gonna be easy, so they gonna be tasty, kings.
Bro, I'm saying a lot of hope. But it's Halloween. It's Halloween. We're gonna take our first break and when we come back, we're gonna have a I guess we're going around the table for movies that remind us of the Dallas Cowboys season special Halloween edition of the Players Lounge.
We'll be right back after this. I got you work.
I'm Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.
And they snapped the fresh guy who looks right, it's not there. He escapes left. He'll look for a first doyn.
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To the players loud.
The Salvation Army twenty seventh annual Red Kettle Kickoff returns to AT and T Stadium this Thanksgiving. Get excited to watch the one and only Dolly Parton rock the stage during half time when your Dallas Cowboys go head to head with the Washington Commanders.
Tune in at three point thirty pm on.
CBS back at the Start in Frisco. For the second segment of the Players Loungejack Maharrison, Danny mccraig, and Barry Church is in the building for a Halloween fellas. The question was or was asked, what does what movie or television series reminds you of the twenty twenty three Dallas Cowboys up until this point, Danny mccraig.
Who would you say, I'm gonna go with Game of Throws? Oh, I'm gonna go with Goot.
You never know, you never know who is gonna get knocked off in that movie?
Okay? True?
And then we going I mean in that TV show, right, and you go in there and it's a battle for the throne. To me, w is the super Bowl, all right, and we go in there against Arizona, right, and they take out the.
Main character us. They gonna take.
The starting take it out in the first the first season, right, and then you know, and this is the same thing for the Cowboys, and then all throughout the season, right, Game of Thrones. Okay, we got the Kansas City Chiefs go out there and they get knocked out by the Denver Broncos, right the Red Wedding. But then but then we show up, we show up, right, and we put forty and forty and thirty five and forty on on on teams, and we're just trying to figure out, like
where are we? Like where are we right now? I really just don't understand. But as I go throughout the season, I'm always on sitting. I'm like this here. I'm worried every time I watch a game because I never know no matter who we play, Giants, see, how whoever it is, we just don't.
Know who gonna show up for us games. We don't know what we're gonna look like. That's fine, I can give you that.
Who you got me for me, I'm gonna go ahead and say this this season kind of reminds men, go another television show like my man mc cray did, and I'm gonna go to Sopranos, all right.
You new to the watching, all right? That one of my favorite shows.
Man.
That was definitely I'm glad you told me to get on that.
But when I look at the Cowboys, they kind of remind me of Tony the man guy out there, all right, no matter what's going on, he's always got to find an avenue to win. Always, no matter what his main plug gets taken out, whatever the case may be, He's got to find a way to win. And that's what the same thing with the Dallas Cowboys. We started out extremely hot the New York teams. We ran through the blowouts.
Then we run into an Arizona team and man, they reopen that wound when you talk about running the football. They almost rushed for two hundred yards. Man, we gotta pivot, We gotta find some way to win. We go against I think the Patriots was next after that, went over there and Motley wapped them, found a way to win. Next thing, you know, we go and get to San Francisco forty ninehundreds. We contain McCaffrey. But the passing game hurts us. I'm like, man, what are we gonna do? Like,
what's going on? Here comes the wrong Bland pivot. We found a way to win, all right, d ron Blan is taking the football away. We're getting that pass rush back alive. And now look at a two game winning streak and we're heading to one of the as games. There is so to me, Uh, this team is kind of like the Sopranos, kind of like Tony, always pivot and trying to find a different aue to win.
I know you're a recent watcher, but we do all know. We all know what happened to Tony at the end of the winter. We don't know what we know. He came he came out and said it all right, they came out and in the playoffs, we all know. You probably don't even feel it when it happens. Hey, that's like that social media dude like self defense trying.
To oh yeah, Heaven's gates.
I'm ana pickure from my movie because of well not so much a Halloween movie, but it does have the blood aspect of it, and that's killed Bill. One of my Quentin Tarantino movie Kill Bill, and it's because of that list that kill lists.
All right, the Cowboys have.
A kill list to kill Bill, and we got some names on our Listen, we crossed through a couple of them, but this Sunday we got Bill on the list. Dog and we this is this is that game. This is that game. This is that enemy that did you wrong. That you know them, You got that history. It plays out for decades and decades and Nate knew and they go back further than a lot of guys. They hate the Philadelphia Eagles. Kill Bill is that movie. For me, I just gonna be saying, we ain't taking no losses
and kill Bill. Shut you got got it, buy got it?
Trust me.
But when you get buried alive, after you wear it, you got to push out your boot to get out, to get yourself out of this. That's what we have to do, Arizona. That was our game. We got buried alive, live in forty niners. They buried us alive. But I wanted to talk to y'all about Philly Man, Philly's Philly's Running game. We hadn't got that did enough talking about it. And this is the respect level that I have just watching this team. They just bludging you up front and
take notes. Hey, if you listen to take notes, Okay, listen, listen to Heck when he was about to give some props to the Philadelphia Eagles. This was stuff you might not ever hear again. So here we go, gather around while I run it down. Kenneth gang Weell and DeAndre Swift to me too, very formidable running backs in this league that can run inside the tackle, but also man, what they do when they get to the outside.
We know.
And I go back to last year's Green Bay game. It just felt like we had no answer for green Bay attacking us out on the edges.
I still see.
And I'm going back to the up twenty off the playing game on October the sixteenth, when I was like, Yo, we're gonna go in there.
With defensive record with I think think three in excession. I'm talking up twenty.
After playing they almost had twenty to zero, and in the first half when they kicked that field goal, I was the happiest man in downas I was like, Lord, please don't let us be.
They came back, though, they.
Came back, but either way, it was one of those games where your defense was exposed. They show like, man, you could run on this defense, and what did everybody else do? They ran on this defense? They took they took it to him. So this running game, for me, this is that time. That's another one of those tests where we flunked that test against San Francisco in the running game so to speak, I mean they moved the
ball at will on us. Do you look at this as another test for this defensive this defensive unit and stopping Philly's running game.
The Night King why they do the Night King? Like, yeah, I know, I listen.
I'm still not sure if we are able to stop the running. We are a good run stopping team when you face a team that really focuses on running the ball. So this will be a test because I think this will be the best running team that you play against.
The quarterback and run.
You got two service of rod receivers AJ Brown every once in a while they bring him on the end and a round so you have the opportunity to figure
out if you can stop to run this game. It does make me nervous because, like I said, we go into the draft, we get a number one draft pick and we get a defensive tackle and My hope for that was not an Aaron Donald type guy, but a guy who you say, okay, he's a difference maker, you know, playing inside in the three technique or one technique wherever you have him at, and we just haven't seen that yet.
So to me, it looks like we are just person personnel wise the same as we were last year when it comes to running the ball and oh yeah, lady vanderresh out, we got some young guys coming in. We got an undersized guy and Bell who comes down to play even though he's been playing. Well, if they get into a game where it's thirty thirty runs, then we're gonna figure out, you know, what type of run stopping team we are. So it does make me nervous. Do I think we could do it? I think we can
get it done, but I'm just not I'm not. I'm not super confident in the fact that we're gonna be able to stop the Feelers afterr run game and oh yeah, you see them add a new wrinkle to the toist push. Oh pass, that was real, But since you ran with the reference, I'm gonna go ahead and get one myself. What was the nephew's name, multi multiltics.
That's that's the run game against his defense.
How many times you're gonna let that man mess up what you got going on before you got up, you.
Know, take the thinking out you got it? How many times? And that's how many times this run game has hurt.
The Dollas Cowboys in the past, and this year it's time after time after time we talk about it.
It's the achilles hell.
If we can get that run game situated, this defense will take off. So to me, it's just how many times is it gonna hurt you before it's time to just lace them up and get rid of it. So hopefully that comes with this game. But I'm not liking the matchup.
I just don't. You talked about that offensive line and what they do best. They just lean on you.
They put that weight on you, to put that pressure on you, and they move the fenders out of the way and you got an explosive, quick running back and with that r p O action, I mean, it's it's it's hard because it's not just a regular downhill run game. It's all right, this guy could hand it off, he can pass it, he can keep it hisself, and it kind of keeps defenses stalling like that. That's how they did the big book of the first matchup going around.
They made him think too much and that slowed them down. So to me, we're gonna get this run game stopped. It's gonna be a musk, but it's gonna be a tough time doing.
I'm taking notes over here. Okay, Church receiver versus defensive backs Eagles. Okay, with the Eagles on line, D line, You going to Eagles. I'll see what you're leaning going towards the end of the I don't like this. You already know because and the reason I'm taking notes is because I know this. Come tomorrow, Thursday, he could be over here talking about I was the guy.
You don't like that. I just be like you. It's not me. Bro.
Over here, look at Jerry said keep your hands together.
Listen said nothing. Look I agree. And the fact that you will.
Put cement shoes on your own nephew is really just a tell tale sign of you.
Man.
I had to get he had to let him. It was about time, Bro. He almost killed driving like that, got a woman snitching killed.
We're talking sopranos here. One about one of my one of my all time favorite shows. And the reason why I love the Sopranos is because at the end of the day, at the beginning of the show, Tony always go home.
No matter what he did that night, he going to the crib.
I got a lot of home boys. I've been telling that to over the year. Go home, go home, go to the crib man. But now that we're talking scheme as far as his running game is concerned, when you look at Jalen Hurts, if you're Dan Quinn, do you spy him?
Do you come after?
I mean, you got two choices, and you gotta You've seen over the over the season in last year that a lot of teams pay. You're gonna pay either way. You're gonna spine or you gonna come out. What are you doing with James? I'm bringing pressure against Jalen. I don't know the exact numbers, but I know it's not as good when you don't bring pressure, when you just let him sit back there, have his pick of the litter, or have the opportunity to also run if you get
out of your lanes. You're just giving him too many avenues to beat you. All right, He's going to have to recoverag just find the hot routes. He's gonna have to have his mind working then also figure out, Okay, which way should I run? Where is he living at? Where is ninety at? Like, I'm going to make him think the entire game, and I think that's the best opportunity you have at slowing him down.
You gotta come after him.
You got to bring a little bit pressure and that might leave you light in the back end, but hopefully that pressure can get home. And we've seen it in the past and Quinn he's come up with a lot of different schemes to get after the quarterbacks. So you're gonna have to bring pressure because if you sit back there and only you know, bring four, play coverage on the back end and have maybe bail or somebody spy him,
it's only you can only cover for so long. And they got two dynamic threats out there in a quarterback that has a canon form. So if you sit back there and play coverage and have a sponge, just let you know hurt, sit back in the pocket, bounce a little bit hot these guys get open.
Eventually he's gonna dice you apart.
You gotta speed things up for a guy like Hurts and force him into making bad decisions. And I think you can get that accomplished if you bring a little bit of pressure.
Well, we're gonna take our final break here. When we come back, I'm gonna ask you guys, as players, what is your mind state going into a divisional game like this knowing that the media circus is going to be there on Monday morning whether you want it to not. Coming up next on the Players Lounge, it's.
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I'm Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, and they snapped.
The press guy who looks right. It's not there, he escaped slapped. He'll look for a first down.
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That was the end of that anyway, It was so smooth, you know what. I wasn't in here with champions out of here. Why we like this, man?
I tell you what you know, it's a cold is a cold cold world. We go, man, I wouldn't expect it to get it no other way on the players last, but I gotta ask yalls, players coming into a game like this, Man, what's your mind state?
Are you saying to yourself? Well, we got to get this.
When it's a must win, we gotta represent no matter what I mean, what is your mind stayed in that locker room coming off of victory?
And also a division folk, Yeah.
Like I like to fight against going to the must win situations because that it puts a lot of pressure on you. I think that's where you got to when you were playing San Francisco, like, all right, we're gonna put everything into this game. This right here is the super Bowl, right and then what happens is if you have a letdown, then it becomes a little bit more tougher for you to say, Okay, how do we figure
out a way to shake back same thing here? Okay, because you already went against your first measure and stick and it didn't go well. Putting putting all your chips into this basket can really can really set you back. All right, So I'm going into this game saying, you know what all we need to do is focus on playing as well as we can.
Play, and whatever happens happens.
But I want to make sure we go out here penalties, keep them down, Dak Prescott be efficient to protect the ball, and defense. Can we figure out how to stop the run and continue taking the ball away. If we do all that and we lose, and we lost, but we have to play well. We can't go out there and then coming here on Monday and be like, man, hey, guys, like we just didn't play well as a team, because
that's when you run into an issue. So my focus says, hey, man, I want to play as well as I can play, and then the result is the result.
Yeah, that's an unobercent right there. I'm with you on that. You can't get too excited going into this game. Too overhyped. We talked about well new we talked about that against San Francisco, and we see what happened. I mean, you got the penalties that were extending drives. Guys, were just a little bit too overhyped. But as a player going into a rivalry game like this, you're going to be excited. You're going to be out there and you want to put your forward and go out there in ballved but
a craze one hundred percent. Right, When you go into games like this, you gotta make sure your job and your responsibility is taken care of. I mean, you gotta understand that your teammates they're gonna do what they gotta do. You gotta trust the teammates to do their job, but you gotta go in there with the mindset that I gotta make sure my assignment is taking care of one hundred percent of the time. And if you go out there and you do what you gotta do, hopefully you
get the dub. If not, it is what it is. But you can't go out there and just try to pay a superman like. You can't be like, oh, I'm so hyped up for this game. I'm gonna do everybody's job.
I'm gonna be the reason we win this game.
Just focus on your responsibilities and hopefully you guys get the job done.
And if you do that, then you looking like first place in the division. You know, I'm not surprised that you guys are going political on this, right, you know what I mean?
It's X players, you know, I know y'all assignment alignment.
Remember what you do it. Don't get lost in the sauce. I get it, and I understand. No, you gotta win this. You gotta put it on yourself right now. You better win this one because as the forty nine ers talk was what we're saying, man, the forty nine is pulled off. It came off the gas. It could have been worse. You got a division fold. It's not gonna give you the same luxury. They're not gonna say we need to pull out the gas on. These people got embarrassed.
You know that.
Watch this political response. No, I'm not going for that. What I'm saying, response to you, because because what you gotta do, because what you got to do defensively. If Michael is gonna go on this podcast and say that Philly is the number one team that he got to show up, all right, he got to show up. I need to see more crawling in this. I need to when somebody else I need more problem, get some honey pulled on or something.
He does. It was like what even honey, listen, No, no, this could put up this guy.
Man, this guy, you need to do you out. I did say it, he did say he said it. But anyways, not help the but not help the man.
Help. I heard the help the bear part, not the.
Sprinkle me. That's a different song. Different artists expressed the remix. I never heard that one. Listen, listen, y'all, don't listen.
The heck Okay, go out here and focus on, like be At Church said, playing the best that you can play, all right, because I'm telling you go. You go out here and you start playing that hero ball and not trusting the fact that your teammates are gonna do what they got because that's what happens when people try to play hero ball. You don't believe that the dude wh's supposed to be in the A gap is gonna be in the A gap. So not you peaking in the A gap. I'm gonna run over that. I'm gonna set
the head like you know that guy. So you make sure y'all listen. Okay, you need to be an A gap, get in the A gap, A gaps under control, all that disciplined stuff y'all talking about. Yes, I get it. I'm just saying for your playmakers. I need y'all to be playmakers. Michael, I need you to be on the attack. I need you to show this needs to be one of those comps. If we're gonna compare them to the greats, we're gonna call him lt l T. Don't disappear. You know,
Derrek Thomas didn't disappear. If we're gonna call you that, then go and be that. And this is what I'm saying. We ain't seen enough crawling in the in the in the in the.
Spirit of Halloween, give me the crawl. That's all. That's all I'll say it. That's that's all we're gonna do. Is see.
That's what I love football. That's why this is so good dog, this football stuff. However, just see the rud list.
Go this is so good. Though this is I wouldn't rather be nowhere else.
But look tomorrow, we'll be back two o'clock on the dot. My man d MAC is in the building. My may BC was in the building. Don't gonna get my homeboy. Better be glad Chucky he moved, But tell you just stay down and look just like seen him blink once off. You don't when he moved you, you won't even know. Yes on that note, we'll see y'all tomorrow on the players line.
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