Player's Lounge: Play To Win The Game?

safety's both undrafted here. So, gentlemen, Mike McCarthy says, they are going to play to win the game in Philadelphia. Jerry Jones says they plan to play. They planned to win. Your thoughts on that, McCray, the better. They better go out here and find a way to get some momentum going into the playoffs. All right. You have to, especially with the outings that we've had against these teams that we believe are better competition than Taystom Hill with the Saints,

whoever was playing quarterback for the Washington football team. Like, you have to go into this knowing that the team feels like they can play against anybody. It's one thing to say it, like they continue to say, yeah, we know that on our bench to day and as long as we come to play, we can beat anyone. But we have not shown that, right, So you need to go out here against the Eagles, who are a playoff team and show that you can beat them, all right.

If you don't, then you're gonna go into the playoff limping with like not knowing who you are on offense, the defense probably filling the type of way about the offense not being able to help them out. So this is your week to fix that before before the tournament starts. Yeah, yeah, you gotta go. You gotta play it. You guys to have all your guys on deck, and you gotta play this last game. I mean, you're not in position right now to rest and be like, all right, we'll get

ready for the playoffs. Because right now, this offense, they have no identity. The offense doesn't know what's going, whether it's a run team, whether it's a past happy team. We just don't have an identity offensively. And what we've seen so far this season is there's no evidence that Dak in this offense can just say, all right, it's time to go. It's playoffs, let's flick the switch and we're hitting on all cylinders. There has been no evidence

of that. There's actually been evidence contrary to that. Like we've seen this offense, you know, steadily go downhill. They might have a blip here and there where the offenses is balling and hitting on all cylinders. But once again, those happened against the New York Giants, you know what saying that happened against the Washington football team, and we're not going against those guys in the playoffs. So to me, offensively, we've got to play because we got to get some

type of momentum. You can't limp into the playoffs and expect to just be flipping the switch and turning into this miraculous ninety nine, you know, rams type of offense. You can't do that. We got to have some momentum going into this playoffs. And defensively we need to play as well. We need to play as well because we've we've played great. Don't get me wrong, we played great. We beat up on the NFC East, we beat up on a couple of guys here and there. But when

we get to the plays. Like you just mentioned, we're gonna be playing against the Garoppolos of the world, the Bradies, the Rodgers if we get that far. So we gotta make sure we're hitting on all cylinders going into this playoffs. And lastly, we still got some seeding you know, to go about right now, Like like we got playoff Satday. Right now, we're in the four seed. We can't get any worse than the four seed. But to me, you know, we're gonna need a lot of help, but we can

still get that two seed. We can still get that three seeds. So it comes down to would you rather go against? You know, if you're in that two or three seed, you get to go against maybe a Jimmy Garoppolo or a Jalen Hursts at the six or seven seed, rather than if you're at that four, you're more than likely going against either Stafford or Cala Murray. And we've

seen what Cala Murray was able to do. So to me, get the momentum, play this game out, hopefully get a dub, and you go into the playoffs not limping, but with some type of momentum. And I'll say this, I think I think it'll be the worst situation that you can have is if you go out here and lose on Saturday, and then if all the chips falling your favorite for you to be seed and you ain't and you didn't play. I think I think that is the worst possible scenario

for you. So I think it's probably a blessing and the curse to have to play on Saturday. One, you get a little extra rest in order to the first round, but two, it's like you need to go out here and put all you like, all your chips on the table, because if everything falls in your favor, whatever happened last week is irrelevant you It still bounce up to the

number two seed and find a different opponent. But the fact that we are sitting here saying, man, we might not want to you know, Arizona, That lets me know that we have work to do as a team. Because we should feel confident us as viewers, us as people who are talking about the game. We should feel confident enough to say we're good enough to play against anybody. And at some points in the season we felt that way.

Yeah we did this week. I'm like, I'd rather play those better teams after we get our get our footing in the tournament. Now, now an Eagles day, you know they got a lot of people in the protocols right now, you know a lot of casts. Now we know it's a little bit different. You can do the five days and they might be able to have them back. But

you know, if you're blowing the goes out. Let's just say they're killing the Eagles second half, the up twenty one, twenty eight points, then I can see, you know, you're resting some people. You know, obviously, if you got that big of a league, you had something doing, something brewing offensively, something brewing defensively. So in that case, I can see us resting in the second half. But if it's a game, you gotta play your boys. You gotta play all of them,

all hands on that. Yeah, Anthony Brown playing, Jordan Lewis playing, Yeah, Traylun Digs he should play, you know, at least the first half, you know, depending on how the game is going. Like you're saying, only people I will be worried about. It is like a d law or something like that.

People who've actually missed extended periods some time during the season to where it's really a risk of that person possibly not being being ready for the playoffs, maybe a Tyren Smith get back and get your feet with in the first half or whatever. But other than that, ninety eight percent of this roster should be playing, including that well Philly dealing with the COVID issues. Twelve guys several starters on that COVID list, So it would be interesting

to see how did they approach this football game. Do they just out, hey, look, you know what, We're just gonna be where we are and we're not gonna put anybody out here who can't give it, give it the way that you know, can't go out here on a hundred percent. So I'll be interested to see what they do on there end. As far as Gimg when you brought him up with the forty nine ers, Barry, he's probably not playing trade. I'm playing last week and got the wind. So the Cowboys have some some things that

they need to work on for themselves. But it's just gonna be interesting to see what other folks end up doing around them, because to me, Philadelphia has got an excellent opportunity to say, you know, we're just not gonna play. You know, we're not going We're not going to take the chance with guys on COVID to put them out here and not have them be one hundred percent and possibly get hurt, because what for them, what is it? What are they playing for? It's a kind of interesting thing.

We know why the Cowboys are playing. They don't look good. They need to try and get themselves um operating at a higher level. But I would do wonder about Philadelphia. What's their incentive? I would I hope you know, they rest, you know, hope they rest their whole squad. You know, they got they they're filling themselves a little bit right now. I think they won what four or five straight or

something like that, so I know they're feeling themselves. But I hope they rest because we've seen when you got all that momentum going and then y'all, let's take a little break here and you try to get right back into it, and it's it's you're not You're not exactly right where you were when you left off. And hopefully that's the case we go. If we go acats the Eagles in that first round, the Boys rested and they ain't. They ain't. They ain't got the momentum on the side

no more. We could take them the house, listen and all. Honestly, the truth is, if we were the Eagles right now, we would be ready. We can talk all this stuff about having to catch momentum and whatever. We're gonna all the starters are gonna play. If we were in the Eagles position right now, a lot of our starters would be sitting on the sideline. Um. So if I was them,

that that's that's what I would be doing. They actually, they absolutely have nothing to play for at this moment, and it actually puts more pressure on the Cowboys to go out there and perform better knowing that the Eagles may sit their players, right, because what you don't want to do is you don't want to have the Eagles go out here and say, you know what we offered us on and then we go out there and lose.

If you remember that six and teen year we went out there to the Eagles and we was like, you know, this should be good. You know they ain't really it ain't really playing for them. I think they had one of the one of them had Yeah, they had already won it. And that was a tough game. That was It came down to the wi y'all want some playing time. No, So yeah, man, it's like it's a lot going into this this Saturday game, short week. We got players who need to get in here and get their feet wet

before they get into the tournament. So this this would be very interesting to see how this plays out. Will let me ask y'all both this question. Do y'all think, um, the advantage could go to the Eagles if they rest their players and they see what type of game playing the Cowboys are trying to go against their defense or against their offense. They could use that for film study if we had to play them right again next week, you still like the advantages for the Eagles. And let

me tell you something. I was watching clips on Twitter Twitter the other day and it was it was backing up what I said about teams finding out what Kellen is doing. Right when you see Buddha Baker get out there and jump that that that jailbreak screen, they tried to tea like like how many times are we gonna do this? When you see Zeke lining up at fullback on third and one, he's getting the ball, they're doing

like we do the same stuff all the time. So I don't think they need any additional game game film. Specifically on the offense, we need to find a way on the offense to be a little bit more creative or actually a little bit more simple. Get the get the big time players the ball, Get them the ball. That's what it comes down to. And we've seen it all over the league. You know Green Bay with Devonte Adams Cooper cut over there in LA he's leading the

league in all three categories. Alan it did like, if you are that guy, and every team has a guy that's considered that guy when it comes to the receiving room, you gotta find a way to give him the ball. Whether it's reverses, bubble screens, I don't care what it is.

And he might not be successful the first couple attempts, Like you might throw the ball to Mark Cooper, he might, you know, catch one of the three, but at least you're involving him early in the game, getting his confidence up early in the game, and who expect that ball tom to come to him? And we saw when you get the ball to Cooper early in the game, it opens things up for the rest of the offense, the rest of the receivers. Hope league, we can get a

game listen, and I'm gonna keep listening. I'm gonna keep listening. I'm okay, Justin Herbert Keenan Allen, Okay, I'm gonna go Alan Clan or Justin. I mean, you can literally go down the list for quarterbacks who have guys who they are going to to key on in those type of situations, and then ours is literally only talk. We only talk about Amark Cooper in that situation. Outside of one game when he made a little noise in the locker room and said, hey, they're not focusing on me. I think

I can help us win these games. They came out and they focused on them, and then they ran away from it the next week. Same thing with Zeke. Actually, Zeke need to come out, Hey man, Hey look, if y'all give me the ball and put put the ball in my hands, then I can help you guys. Feed Z. I ain't seen the feed ze sign in weeks. He's trying to be that. He's trying to be that good team trying. I don't want to feathers. I don't want anything to do. He must be vegan. He listen nine

carries my man, he loses a weight. They let us out there help help the guy out. But so, Danny, are you Are you saying you feel the offense is predictable. I know I'm not. I'm not saying I believe it's predictable, but I mean, I believe that when we get in certain situations, we are running some predictable stuff, all right. When you see the lineman line up out there, we saw at the beginning of the season, We're like, oh,

that's great. You see what Keller Moore did and like literally Bouda Baker said, I know what's coming and almost picked that thing off for six. All right. In the same thing we saw in this game where the ze lines up at fullback offset and then you have a running back lined up behind whoever there's line up behind

the quarterback and they turn around handed to Zeke. We've actually gotten stopped on that play a couple of times like these, like it's it's it's it's a few plays, but it's the situation that they're being running that that sometimes becomes predictable, specifically for players who are in that in that type of situation. Boode Baker is an All Pro player, like he's going to see that, uh, And I think that's kind of what's what's holding us back? But specifically you have to you have to get the

ball to Mark Cooper. Oh, y'all forgot Chasing Burrow? Just keep yeah, Chason Burrow, what's the third twenty seven? You know where the ball is going? Going to number one? All right? If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But they're gonna get that man a shot. All right. He ain't making twenty million dollars a year. Okay, So all right, So so based on what you guys are saying, how much do you now put this on Dak Prescott because Aaron Rodgers going he's going to Davante. I'm talking about

that's where he's going. You know he's gonna go there. Joe Burrows looking for Jamark Chase he out here. How much do you put on Dak Prescott for not saying, okay, I'm going roller here to Mark Cooper. I'm putting them I'm putting the majority on it. I'm gonna go ahead and do it. Whether it's seventy thirty, sixty forty, I'm putting the majority on Dak Prescott. And the reason I believe that is he has the power, all right, when

he's at the line of scrimmage. We've seen he has the power to either checking the run, checking the pass, switched the offensive line protection this way that way. He is basically extension of the coaching staff on the football field. Like he's Him and Keller Moore are basically like this. I mean they teammates together, quarterback coach. Now he's an

offensive coordinator for him, they're like this. I believe that Dak Prescott not only has you know, the power at the line of scrimmas, but the cash to do so. If he's like, you know, we're gonna get this guy to ball, who's gonna tell him no, Like, you know, you cannot throw the ball to Mark Cooper on this play.

Nobody's gonna do that. So to me, I think he has a cash and he's the guy that has to feel like, you know what, I gotta get nineteen involved earlier offen, Listen, I'm going sixty forty forty on Dec. Sixty one. And the reason that I'm doing that is, like you said, the quarterback is an extension of the offensive coordinator, and I think one these guys already have to go out there with a ton of tons of things to think about like you said, protection, what formation?

What check? What this? What that? And now you want to add an additional piece to to where he has to kind of go out on his own and do it. I can guarantee you when he goes out there, he already has to say, what are they lined up in here? Because I got to check for this one? What are they lined up on the right side? Because I gotta

check for this one? And then now as you're trying to communicate all that, it's like, you know what, as a matter of fact, let me line up all my receivers over here and put a Mark Cooper over there and get that communicated, and then get a Mark Cooper the ball. So I'm saying that Kellen should put this in the game plan. Hey, let me tell you something that no matter what happens, Okay, no matter what happens,

we're going to Coop. And the way you can do that and say three we all know three bout one. If you put the running back to the three receiver side and you leave a Mark Cooper on the back side, that is literally going to be one on one ninety percent of the time unless they're running two man like. Other than that, that's a one on one call. We know Mary Cooper's rout running his slants. He can run digs,

he can run gost, he can run all that. So he can literally get out there and work that other cornerback and we just not have We've not seen that consistently. I don't actually think we've seen that at all. I would love to see, like what his win percentage is like when he's going out there and he's getting these routes, if he's open or not. I mean, I would love

to see is right now. You know, I'm putting the onus on that because I believe he's that leader, he's the franchise whatever, and he has a cachet to be able to to do that. But I wonder if is he getting open, because we gotta see, like all twenty two, is he even back? Maybe he's getting locked up. I'm going to die on the field with a Mark Cooper getting the ball and not being open like like that is a bet that I'm going to take because every time we've seen him be able to get catches in target,

he's been watching, he's been wilde open. I don't think you can guard that dude one on one especially intermediate routes. I don't think that. I don't I don't think you could. I don't think you can guard him in that. And there's always a way for you to get get him the ball in no situations specifically. Just watch DeVante Adams. Just just watch them. It literally happens. Everybody knows who the ball is going to. Every time that ball is

now is DeVante Adams. You got to focus on him to somehow to do end up with ten eleven cats one hundred fifty yards every week. And I don't understand how these defensive coordinators if I if I want to get DeVante Adams, I don't give what you in. I am putting two. They're gonna be on that vice gript rember how they used to do. Calvin Johnson used to be like the punt vice cript. That's how I'm doing

these guys. And we don't see that on a Mark Cooper like he's sometimes he's one on one coverage out there. We're not giving him. Well, well, you know what happens with with a team like Green Bay. You know what they can do. They can run the ball, right, So when you have those type of situations where you just sprint it out and you got a J. Dillon and you got Aaron Jones out there. Yeah. It puts the defensive coordinators in those type of situations. Us, they're gonna

run it nine times. It's okay, they're gonna run the nine times. It's all right. We're gonna get out here and play how we want to play. All right, we're gonna we're gonna make them. We're gonna dictate to them what they're gonna run. I think Keller Moore also falls victims to that often, starting with Tampa. Tampa was able to dictate that we were not just off the run the ball against just off the and then they can

do that same thing with them. They can do that same thing with Ceedee Lamp and Dak will have to look the other way because that look is not something that works for whatever offensive player is called on killing Moore's playsheet. Okay, uh, let's get a break in here. Power rankings are out. I looked at one power ranking, and I want to know if you guys think it's fair the way the Cowboys have been ranked this week. Let's dive into that. Players acted by Hotels dot Com.

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Church and Danny mccrank. Dak Prescott is the nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, a war presented by Nationwide, recognizing NFL players crowd standing community service

at activities on the field and their excellence off. As she said, the service communities off the field and their excellence on it helped Dak earn a twenty five thousand dollars donation days Faith Fight Finish Foundation by voting on Twitter tweet hashtag wup m O V I should say wp m O why for year Why challenge followed by Prescott through January seventeenth vote dot Okay, guys, I just may asked the simple question, here, are we being too

negative as we start talking about the Cowboys this week? Coming up that loss to Arizona. I think I've been saying the same thing about the offense. I think for literally half the season. I still think that our defense can be elite as long as we have the offense doing doing something right. When you go out there and you're going three and out, defense is fighting and scratching the claw to hold these teams the field goal, and then you go three and out and put them right

back out there. I think that's a recipe for disaster for our defense. So our offense does have to bring something to the table, like you said, twenty four twenty five points, give our defense a chance to get out there and make a play to change the game like dlof did. We didn't have the time out, but give our defense that type of shot, and I think we're okay. I don't think it's negative. I think it's we're seeing what needs to be fixed this week going into the

playoffs in order for us to be successful. I still think we can be a successful team. We just need to go out there and show it against a playoff team, which which would be the Eagles if they play everybody. But no matter what, we need a good we need a good positive showing. Yeah. I don't think it's too negative at all, you know, because we go out here and we praise them for when they beat up on New York or they beat up on Washington, or they beat up on some of these other teams. Can we

praise them? We say, you know, they playing great defenses on fire. But I've always had this, just this thought in the back of my head, thinking, Man, if we go ahead gets better quarterbacks and better teams, it's gonna be a little shaken. We're gonna have to have one of them top performance. It's one of them complete games like in Atlanta to go ahead and win the game.

I don't think we're good enough to just one side of the football dominating still get a W. I think both sides, maybe even all three phases with special teams, has to play well in order for us to get a dub over the better teams out there. So I don't think it's being too negative. I think we're just stating the obvious. You know, we're staying obvious. This offense

right now has no identity. I mean and and right nowity that's either inconsistent in the past game or it's not enough attempts in the run game, or the run game is just getting shut down completely. But we have no no identity in this with this offense. And defensively, it's like if we don't get four or three takeaways, man, are we gonna, Are we gonna be able to win

the game? You know? And and that's an absurd like just level of defensive play that you gotta you gotta play if you want to be able to take four get four takeaways each and every game. I mean, that's just that's just that's just you. You can't you can't do that. You just can't do that. So to me, it's it's not unfair. I think it's fair criticism. And the Cowboys have got to play better, especially when we

go against playoff teams. I was still gonna say, listen, d Law came out and we should have had that turnover. Should have we should have We should have had that one turnover in this situation because Mojoe moment. That's Mike McCarty's thing. Mojoe moment. This is the Mojoe moment. And we one we we can't get in New York to get in because they say it's not enough evidence or whatever, but we don't have the time out to actually challenge that because it's right before like the time and of

that is horrible. But when you talk about like opportunistic teams, it's still to me counts as the defense being an opportunistic like we you know, they did everything they could that game and it did it did not. It didn't work out for them, But that's that's taking the ball away. So I still think we still have an opportunity to do that. Even if it's not four times, you still got one to two. Because Curse gets out there and he dropped, he drops off, I could have turned the

game all around. So so we still have the defense can still get one of the two takeaways no matter who you're playing against, because that's two on Arizona that we should have had. Those are missed opportunity for big players. But we can still do it. And after the game a lot of players were upset about that. They went after the officials. So I'm expecting guys to have to write a lot of checks to the league this week. League gonna get fat based off so many Cowboys players

criticizing the officials. Former defensive tackle Tony Cassius, who was on three Super Bowl teams with the Cowboys, tweeted this out and I want to get your take on this. When the church, he said, when you blame the officials for a loss, you need to look in the mirror Are we that good your take on that? Yeah, I'm with Tony on that one, because we talked about this on the pre and post game or the post game show, when pretty much the entire guys that they asked to

do interviews after the game. We're basically saying, you know, we had to go against two teams today, the refs in Arizona, and you can't do that. You can't do that because the refs, you know it didn't didn't mess up when they went up seven, oh, didn't mess up when they went up fourteen, oh, you know, twenty one to three. I mean it was you had opportunities to get yourself in the game and not rely on the last second fumble that could have been or could not

have been. I mean, you had opportunities in that game the stake to put your mark on that and take the control of that game, and you didn't. You didn't, and you got to hold yourself accountable on that one. You can't sit there and blame the refs because look, they're humans too. They're gonna make mistakes. They're gonna throw flags that they think are flags and we may not think they're flats. But that's just a part of the game. Just like injuries are a part of the game. Refs

are a part of the game. You can't blame that. You gotta hold yourself accountability. Look, Arizona went out there, they out coached you, they outplayed it, and they got him doub At the end of the day, you just kind of suck it up and being I'm gonna say this, man, he's about ninety five maybe nine correct, and I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna say this, No, not for us. If you're talking about the New Orleans Saints. Oh yeah, okay,

that's different. If you talk about the New Orleans Saints and those type of situations, was there, then you have an argument, all right, yes, like they were driving, that was a clear opportunity they would have been to win a game. Like hours is they get the fumble. We still have to make stuff happen. You know, you got

to get out there to do it. So, like coaches always say, they're like four to five players in the game, they really turn the game, all right, So outside of that possible fumble, there's still four or five opportunities that you have to to win the game, and that ain't one of them. A right offense struggle for a long time, and the real like the realization of it is the offense started putting up points when the defensive Arizona started playing a little lacks, right, they were just trying not

to give up the big play that you start. You started methodically moving the ball down the field. It seems a lot easier than it did in the first three quarters, right because they were playing playing a little different Um, same same thing that happens with us. So what offense did not play well this game? No, no matter what, they made it closer at the end. But realistically that that team was like I think, I think we're okay, We're just gonna play not not to give up the

home run. Um, so yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't complain about the Reds even though you know it was a fun Where do y'all think this is? This is coming from them? Y'all think it's coming from up top, like the head because it's the second game, because I think it was the Raiders game and things giving it. Now this game where you know, things don't go our way and we lose the game, and then the first thing we come out and say is that we had to go against two squads a day. We had to go

against the rest. Where do you think that's coming? Didn't that's the players just saying themselves, like, man, it's the refs against us, or is it somebody up top head coach? Hey, what's going on? What they're really saying? A man, this dude would have made this kick again, we would have been Okay, that's what they said. But you can't talk about Joe's teammates, So we're gonna put it on somebody

else because make the kick broke? Do you know how hard it is to coach in a big time game when you don't have confidence in your kicker, stuff like when you don't have that ultimately man's look, he could we know he could hit the goal post or something from sixty, But if you don't have confidence in the guy hitting it from forty eight thirty, You know what I'm saying, Chips, that's making extra points. That is a

hard thing to do. I'm surprisedly we can't start going for two more man, And I'm ain't got no comforts, Superman. I don't understand it. Anybody else? Yeah, yeah, too late for that, thank you. It's it's too late for that. And this is a lot, a lot of this right now has been on on Fossil. This is his guy. He brought up for the Ramsay game, that stupid contract and during training camp. I can't, I can't emphasize that enough. This dude had this dude hurt and there's no competition

and no kickers out there. I'm sorry, I hadn't seen anything like you. Man. This is I just man, I'm flabbergast. I think it's just silly. Now, how about this note from John Macholda. He tweeted out NFC playoff kickers. Matt Gave of LA two miss field goals, one missed extra point, Jake Ellie to Philadelphia three miss field goals, zero extra

points missed. Ryan suck Up of Tampa Bay four miss field goals, three miss extra points, Greg Zerline the Cowboys six miss field goals, five miss extra points, Matt Prader of Arizona seven miss field goals, too, missed extra points, and then Mason Crosby of Green Bay nine miss field goals,

one extra points. Listen, no matter the numbers matter, but the situations matter more for us, right, it is when are you missing these field goals or how does it play out at the end of the game, Like Mason Crosby's out there missing them, but he Aaron Rodgers still out there putting up buckets and their offensive playing well enough, defensive playing well enough for them to win the game.

I was just putting us in a situation to where we're chasing points and then we're losing by the exact amount of points that you missed on field goals and extra points, which which makes it a little bit more. It just makes it worse. It just makes it worse because just like you said, it's not like when when it comes down a nutcutting time and he has to make this to either tie the game or put us ahead, he's usually money. Like the season, he's usually been money.

It's those early in the game. I'm just gonna come by. This is a routine kick for me. This is forty yards, thirty five yards is easy money. And he hooks him left where he sails him somehow. And then, like you said, we're chasing these points. When do we go for two? What do we keep going for just an extra point?

And it wavers your confidence. It wavers your confidence because that's supposed to be routine from from what life for hitting for this guy from forty end fifty end, it's supposed to be routine, but those are the things that he's missing and it's costing us in the long run. The problem might have is the whole amount of confidence that Mike McCarthy kept having in this guy and talking about how he kicked the Rams to a field to a super Bowl when he was there with with with

the Rams in the Superdome against the Saints. I just feel like, dude, you're you're praising a guy for what he used to do. Yeah, he's not that guy anymore. And it's very clear I haven't played the game. You guys are out there, and you guys who played on special teams, so you understand the whole mentality out there. Dude, if the Cowboys score a touchdown, I don't get up and go get a drink anymore. I sit there watch the extra point because you don't know what this dude.

That's how scary it is right now. It's extremely scary. I mean, and you know, I'll go back to our days with Dan Bailey, like you know, when he was on fire, when he was when he was that that stretch run three four or five years. He couldn't miss, He could not miss. But when he fell off, I mean he fell off a cliff and he started hooking him left right, you couldn't you couldn't find a goal. He couldn't find the center of the goal post. And I hopefully you know this doesn't happen to their line

at least for this stretch run. But man, if he falls off, the kickers usually fall off extremely hard, and you know, hopefully he's able to regain his swing, regain that at whatever swing momentum he had, But we gotta stop getting these hooks left, especially in the playoffs where it could come down to a two or three point game. Listen, it is what it is. It is. It is what it is. It is what it is that I mean ain't known you can do about it. And he's our kicker.

Hopefully he finds a way to get hot in the playoffs. It's just the showing, uh that we've seen throughout the seasons, particularly with not having any competition and training camp. But than him being hurt and knew he out there and watching nobody actually get kicks like that, that is that is something that's concerning. But listen, he's a vet, and if they believe that he can get hired and get this thing straight and get this thing on on on path,

then well, y'all, I'm gonna please please help us. Oh so so literally at this point in time, I hate to say it, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it. I think this man is gonna cost the Cowboys in the playoffs. I do. I think everything is lining up for You've already had three football games where you can look at the fact that his lack of performance to make to do his job has cost the Cowboys, So why will it not not cost them in the playoffs.

I just think it's going to be more of the same because what they played against Arizona, they all said, this is a a state in the game. You know, this was a playoff type team, and this guy came up small one more time. I don't I don't see how he's not going to continue to do what he's been doing. Yeah, the evidence is there, just like there's like our offense. The evidence is there for our offense. Man, we got a six or seven game um example of what our

offense is. And that's why it's gonna be hard for me to think that unless we play our guys and build this momentum going into the playoffs, that we're just gonna be able to flip a switch and be hitting on all cylinders, at least offensively. Listen, because defense travels, and I think we had been on it. We have been on like a four or five game streak of the defense playing excellent and they still played. They still played well enough for us to win the game against Arizona.

I'm still not counting them out from being able to carry us throughout the playoffs as long as the offense and the special teams bring brings a little bit to help them out. Yeah so so so I still feel Okay, I don't think it'll be on grig. I'm really I'm gonna put the onus on the defense at this point because I believe that this is the X factor for us to be able to one have to play on the road. If we do and and and hold these teams to under twenty five points of the offense still

has an opportunity if they score under thirty. Yeah, all right, let's get our check the break in here when we come back. I want to give Mike McCarthy grain so far, what he's done as the head coach of the football team. So everybody come with you great, ready to go to hand it out to Mike McCarthy next right here all the players last knew We scribes Danny McCrae and Barry Church on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Nobody protects you from mayhem like all state. I'm a broken traffic lady,

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the app or the Google Play Store. You are in the players lives brought you by Hotels dot Com. I'm the we scrugs along by alongside the players themselves. Barry Church Danny mccrane. They played safety for the Cowboys. Both guys were undrafted. All right, gentlemen. The final game of the regular season coming up. It's the seventeenth regular season game, first time we've ever seen that in the National Football League. Cowboys are sitting within eleven and five record as we

go into this final game. They are NFC East champions here they will be no less in the four seat in the playoffs. What grade would you give Mike McCarthy as the head coach in the second year with the team. Gonna start with you, McCray. I'm gonna give him straight up B. He's getting to be he's getting to be. Listen, I don't think I don't think you could discount the fact that this team does have eleven wins, possibly going on twelve. All right, and you're also in the playoffs.

You turned the team around from what you had last year. You've been able to get guys to play better than they did last year. On defense. We credited to dan quinn, but it's also Mike McCarthy. He got dan Quinn in here. He allows dan Quinn to be the coach that he can be. So I'm gonna give him a BEA. You're looking at possibly a twelve win team, division winner, possibly a number two seat, So I'm giving him a B. A you game, I'm gonna go ahead and give him a C plus, right mcgiel m a C plus. They

did make the playoff. Yeah, yeah, I'm mc give him a SEA plus. They did make the playoffs. They turned this they turned this thing around from last year. He was a little five or six and six and six and ten last year because made yeah, yeah, six and ten last year. He turned this thing around eleven and five.

Right now they're going to the playoffs. But the reason I can't really give him a B and the reason I can't really give him an A is because, look, I'm gonna be honest, I think the majority of what we talked about it on this show thousands and thousands of times, the majority of the guy that turned this defensive around, it's Dan Quinn. It's his system. It's him putting players over system and getting the most out of his players. Offensively, we talked about it earlier in the season.

You know, Kelly Moore's boy Jenius giving all these all this stuff and it's offensive. This guy McCarthy was supposed to be the offensive guy, but then or Kelly Moore is the one that's calling the plays. So to me, I gotta give him a C plus because he's done a great job of basically turning the culture around and make everybody out here is basically saying, all right, let's focus on the task out of handed what we gotta do. You don't see these guys talking about like last year,

these coaches can't coach and anything like that. So to me, I get, yeah, they could like they could. I give him a C plus to turn this culture around. But when we're talking about what made this defense turn like that, it wasn't McCarthy, it was Dan quinn. So I can't give him above a C plus. You know, listen, we played against the Minnesota we got that. That that with the backup quarterback in the game. I mean, you know, we we we did some things well, kool a. So

you definitely on the cool. I forgot. That's not calling the plays, not calling defense. How could we really give him a much credit? All I know is I, gentlemen, I've seen C plus coaching around the Cowboys. Man, I can't this was not a C plus coaching job. Okay, you cannot give this man anything less than it be. Okay, I seen C plus all right? So so so on the dance call the eyear on the dence called the year, what did you give Jason Garrett as far as that

year for coach? Did he win Coach of the year? That he did? He did that her sixteen? Okay, so he didn't win the Coach of the Year. He didn't. I don't I don't remember. I don't remember. I will forget that he won. He won Coach of the Year when they went thirteen and three with the two rookies and then McCarthy came in there and beat the daylights at him in the first quarter and they ended up winning the playoff games. Rogers hit that same third and the same dude, this table the floor to the back

to back. Come on, man, don't discount that well, which dis great. I'm glad you said. I'm glad you said that because I had been. I was killing McCarthy last year for the six and ten and I'm like, hey, man, look look at what Green Bay's done without him. They've won thirteen games two years in a row and playing the NFC Championship game without McCarthy, And they said, do

you were the problem? What did the Cowboys get? And so here they are again, there's the number one seed going thirteen games, and I'm saying, all right, Mike McCarthy, you've got the Cowboys at eleven wins. I had him at nine. He's done a better job than I I thought. And Mike Nolan was the problem. I give him credit for getting out of the way of Dan Quinn, and so to me, I give Mike mccarthyer a because I did not think he could do anything that he did this year. I was not betting on it. I had

lost money in Las Vegas. I said, the Cowboys win the division with nine wins, so I'm gonna given a. So so you so your A is based off your your previous expectation and not his actual body of work for this year. It was like, I thought he was gonna be an ill but since he go out of two more wins and I thought he was gonna get I'm gonna give him again. What about the performance of the year. Not because your expectation was so low, And he was like, oh man, this is a total one eighty.

That ain't right. We're giving this man an A for staying out the way defense highly gonna do this. So no, I'm not on the fence. I'm not on the fence because Danny, you can relate to this haven having gone through an NBA program where you start judging people on where where did you come from? Okay, where was your knowledge base at? When you take a class like an analytics or statistics where you where's your space? And then where do you end up that I'm telling you right now.

To start this season, I did not think Mike McCarthy had what it took. In fact, I was one of those people saying this dude could be fired. Okay. I was like, this dude could be fired if this thing doesn't go correctly here. That's where I was on him. And the man has gone past the expectations of what I thought he could do and what this team could do here. So I'm gonna give him an A based

on that, I am what about us? So if we if we get in the first round exit, if we go in there, we get out first round, we're gonna we're gonna get this man. I ain't give him no ad because my expectation, my expectation going into the year was different than newis. We had him at eleven wins uh and knew he knew he had him in something totally different, which to me didn't make sense because I believe that I believe that the defense was going to be better and we were going to be a better

team because of it. Dan and you know, and knew it is you know, he thought we was gonna win nine. So he's like, oh, since we want more than nine, that's an a. We should we should have won more than nine. Knew if you're being honest. Okay, we just got through with two Washington football team and the Saints with Taysom Hill. Okay, we set we settle one eleven games. But be real about that, Okay, be real about at

the end of the day. I don't think they'll finish number two, but they're gonna finish no more than number four. I did not see that for this football team going in. I mean, I just did not have these expectations. Didn't see them doing what they did that was coming off the injury. I just had a lot of doubts about this football team, especially what they were doing on what was done defensively last year. So I'm just telling you that's that's where I am, and that's where I was.

We all have three different grades, we all have three different expectations to kind of what we thought. And that's okay. Now, if you get beat, if you get if he pull a Garret and there's one of these Garret specials in the first hand, then yeah, I'm a lord of the grade because I reserved the ranking teams my mind. So if you get average performance in the playoffs, you know I'm going down on them. So there we go. So there we go. I just said right now, right now, listen,

all listen, this is what I know. Okay, whatever you're gonna say about Jason gear and all that that funny with thirteen, then they get first round by one time, all that time, coach of the Year, all that stuff. But that's what I want to do before we get off the show. Look at the AFC side of things, Okay, And as much as we believe that it's possible for the Cowboys to get the number two seed, it is very it is possible for the Cincinnati Bingers to get the one seed in the a FC this week. That

is not gonna happen. Hey man, I'm just telling you that it's possible, it is mathematically possible for the Cincinnati Beingles and Joe Burrow to end up as the number one team in the ac as we're doing that. And I say that because LSU was playing night against Kansas State eight o'clock. Y'all, make sure y'all tune in because this is gonna be the first game of the Brian

Kelly era, and I hope that it goes well. I can't believe you just did what you just did right there, it's NEWI let's say I get the number one seed. Where did I lie? They better get the number one? See, because if they two, you know who they're gonna have to go against in that first round? What you mean, are they two? They like number three right now? If they get up to two, huh, what about it? You

know who they gotta play in the first round? That that man, that guy Jay Herbert, That's who they're gonna have to go against. You see what happened last time they went up against each other. If they clinched, who have the Chargers the playoffs? All I got do is be the team they already beat this year? All right, That's all they got. The Charges haven't clinched. They're seven right now because because they couldn't be, because they couldn't

beat the Texas. They's seven right now. That's all that matters. But they could be Cincinnati. We saw what happened when they went together early in the season, so I guess that we see what happened. They could be the Chiefs. They they did, they already did up in the regular season. They beat Cincinnati and the Chiefs. They could be Chiefs now, don't matter who they don't matter who they ain't playing. They're not even in the playoffs. You see, you're gonna

see what's up now. So Church, Church, you you're going against Richard Bes that's my guy, but that's my guy. But he gonna take this Alan, that's my guy, but he gonna take this al Man. Is that maybe want too straight? Who? Yeah? They want two strangers they want to shout Listen, the charges couldn't be the Texans, Okay, that's all I'm saying. All I'm saying. They beat the Cincinnati Bengals. They already beat the Chiefs, and they already

beat the Rangers. It ain't done none sense. They're not in the player a se seat right now, they ain't a seven seat. One more quarterback topic before we go, because I wanted to get you guys opinion on this as players and how you would take this in the locker room. Baker Mayfield said afterwards that he's pretty beat up and he's gonna start to look out for his own health and basically saying, I probably don't go play next week. I'm gonna go ahead get the shoulder fixed here.

What would be your thoughts if you heard this from your quarterback? Bro? Just do it. Don't say it. You ain't got to say all that. Okay, you hurt that far. We know we're in the locker room with you, but you ain't got to say, oh that, that's how you know that the outside noise is getting to Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield his wife be sitting on Twitter, scrolling through trying to figure out who they should reply to, who they shouldn't, and then they just do one mask, one mask,

blind copy, and then they reply to everybody. Let the noise get out of your head. Man, if the season didn't go well for you, you're gonna go get your surgery. Just gonna do that quietly, right and let the rest of these dudes who're gonna put it out there on the line, let them go out there and focus on getting to win. Because somebody dudes playing for their job, all right. We don't care that you don't have to play for your job. Was you already got your fifth

year option? Okay? I need to go out here and do everything I can to make sure I put something more tape for me to have an opportunity to play in the league next year. I don't want to hit nothing about your shoulder in your search. Yeah, you're right. He ain't have to say nothing. He could have just been like, hey, man, I'm hurt, I'm done. Go see y'all next year. You already picked up the fifth year option. We'll see y'all next year. I'm not Hurbert, you know

what I'm saying. I'm not just a hurt all right. I'm not about to lead a team to the playoffs in a long stretch run. That's not me. I'm gonna go ahead and get this this shoulder done and call it a day. Are you Are you willing to bet on this somehow? Are you willing to bet on this? But Joe Burrow versus just how they how far are they making it to the play already mopped up Joe Burn? How far are they making in the playf he will mop up Joe Burrow again. Okay, we've seen this already. Guys.

We gotta go. We're talking about this tomorrow, guys, we gotta go. We go tomorrow. We can do this tomorrow, Jay Herbert from Barry Church. Danny McCrae, I'm knew, he scrugs. This is the players on chabanti By Hotels dot com on Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio coming here with a ten jersey on tomorrow. How this has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.