Player's Lounge: What Are We Running?

longtime Cowboys reporter, joined by two former Cowboys players. We got safety Barry Church at safety, Danny McCray, Players labs, got a whole lot of topics to get two fellas. The Cowboys go down on Sunday Night football to the Los Angeles rams By School of twenty to seven teen. Last Friday when we went on the air, Church, you had the Cowboys winning by twenty one. Danny, you had the Cowboys fall by thirteen. I had the Cowboys winning by five. All three of us were wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

I want to start with the defense because that's something we have stressed here on the players line. Just talking about defense. So many people were going after offense, offense offensive, talking boys, we had been talking about the Cowboys defense and that being an area that was bothersome to us. I'm want to go of a couple of numbers for you, all right, fellas, let me throw this out here. Total offense for the Rams four hundred and twenty two yards.

You guys know games are one on third down. And when it came to third down, Jared Golf and the Rams kept converting all night long, nine of seventeen on third downs when it comes at the time of possession. In this football game, this thing was won by the Rams. They held the ball for a total of thirty five minutes and thirty eight seconds, and they had an advantage of the Cowboys. Their Cowboys defense on the field for eleven and eleven minutes in sixteen seconds more than the offense.

So to me, the defense had issues. The Cowboys offense didn't help them out by keeping the off the field. Danny, you go, let me tell you something new. We talked about this. If you and I text you right after that first drive, if you cannot stop the run, you

will not be able to do anything else. And the Rams came out and they ran the ball on us, and if you if you looked at it and you got to see something from the end zone view when they showed the replace man, our linebackers were catching our defensive line and the interior were getting pushed off the line. We were pretty much getting bullied in the run game. And that set us up for the rest of the

for the rest of all the other stuff that happened. Right, So when you see us getting killed on third down, that's because we let them nickel and dive us. Uh, you know, quick outs and get third shorts and then and then running and complete short passes to get those first down. So we did not earn the right to rush the path and that killed us in this game. Yeah, you hit it right on the nail. D Mac. I mean,

I'm gonna be honest here with you, fella. Is this this is not the performance I was looking forward to seeing week one from this defense. Um. And it has to come to the to the what I thought was going to be a strength of this defense, and that's the front seven. I mean, you got d Law, you got Poe and there you got Everson Griffin, Ty Crawford,

and then you got the two linebackers in there. Now we know vander Esch went down with the collarbone injury, but you still had a strong front seven in there, and those guys were literally man handled from from the snap, from the very first play. I mean there was poles where Malcolm Brown and Cam Acres they weren't getting touched until they were at least six yards down the line

of scrimmage. And you can't win that way. There's no way in the NFL you're able to win if you're allowing the running it back to just get five and six yards a pop. It just makes it way too easy. They made Jared Golf look like Ben Roethlisberger back there when it came to play action. I mean, this was an amazing to me. I think it was an amazing coaching display by McVeigh. I mean, he kept this defense

off balance pretty much the whole entire game. If it wasn't with the tempo where they were going fast, or they were slowing it down a little bit then going back fast again, or if it was just the misdirection and counterplays they were using the Cowboys aggressiveness against him, I think it was a great coaching displayed by McVeigh. But the front seven, to me, it just didn't look good at all, and that's not what I was expecting. But there is a short, little little bright light, I

guess you can say the two corners. I feel like they played pretty well out there. I think digs for I mean, he gave up a couple of plays, but he was scrappy out there, and he was in perfect coverage. The ball was just a little bit, you know better, it was better offense, But it was great defense by him on a couple of plays that he gave up. We saw a woozier with the interception. So there is a little line light there with the secondary. But that front seven, who was supposed to be a strength, they

gotta pick it up. I mean, they were man handled all night. So go ahead, Danny, Go ahead, Danny. I was gonna say, one Church, can you tell me what defense are you running? Is it a five two four or four three? What are you running? I thought it was supposed to be a multiple look, you know, three four, four three, and looked like we were just simply in a I don't even know how they explained and maybe have five two mixed with the four three. But there was no movement at all, no movie. I think I

think both of y'all will agree that it coached. I mean, Church, you said that it was a great coach and displayed by Sean McVay. This was the exact same stuff that the dude been running for the last four years. You know, Robert Woods is going to run a jet suite in almost almost every play, and then they're going to bootleg off of that eighty potent at the top, like it was the same stuff. And we sit there and did

the same thing. And I was upset because I watched the Tampa Bay game and I was watching Todd Bows defense and how they made how they disrupted um Drew Brees when they got into those type formations by blitzing those linebackers the strength of their team, and I was like, oh, yeah, we're gonna be doing some of that. We didn't see any of that, none of them, and I was I was just shocked. I was just shocked to see it.

And we just, you know, as a defense, we lined up in the same stuff the entire game and let them run the same stuff that they had been running for the last four years, and they ran into perfection and killed us the entire game. That that was very confusing to me from the from a coaching standpoint, and then our physicality is on the defensive standpoint. Both both

of those were surprising and confusing. Hey then, Mac, I'm I'm gonna ask you a quick question here, but I know we want to talk about this a little bit later. But are you hinting at the fact that McCarthy might have been out coached in his first game? Is that what you're saying? Once we get the offense, I get on that. Defensively, I think we were. We were. We were definitely out coached. And and it's surprising because, like I said, they didn't running the same stuff. They've been

running the same stuff newly. You listen, if you if you don't agree, then let me know. Has did the Rams offense scheme wise not look the same as they have been looking for the previous years with the same

players doing the same stuff. A part of me thought I was watching the playoff game that I was at the LA Coliseum when the Rams had the two hundred yard running backs in that game, one them included Tie Gurley where they were just beating up the Cowboys right up the middle as though, they went back to that same thing to say, you know what, I guess what. We don't think you dudes are good up front and the Cowboys front lines. We spoke about this as well.

The front lines for the Cowboys on both sides of the football were out playing and the Rams I thought were suspect on the offensive line, but they coached them up very well. Mike Nolan had no answers for Sean McVay. You're you're right, Danny. They bullied the Cowboys. The Cowboys got punched in the mouth so many times. I would say, all right, Jason Garret Don had these guys ready to play, and you know what, the Cowboys were not ready for what the Rams had to offer and the adjustments to

do it. Okay, it didn't happen. I'm gonna sit up here, tell it like it is now. Okay. I can drink the koolaid all day long about Mike mc gonna be a true teller with the koolaid. Okay, because my hu has no alcohol in it, so it's just cigafree. This first batch of koole wasn't good. It didn't taste good. It was bitter, and they got to change some things here. I'm worried about this defense right now because this is the blueprint that anybody who's smart is gonna say. All right,

you know what. The Cowboys are very good with Everson Griffin and Olden Smith and Tank Lawrence. Okay, they're gonna get out to the passer. But guess what, We're not gonna sit up here and do a five step drop. We're gonna be quick with it. We saw where Jared Goff dropped back quickly and as soon as he got the ball, he knew exactly where he was going with

the ball, and they were quick drops. They didn't throw any deep passes out there, and yet the Cowboys DBS didn't try to get up on these on the cow on the Rams receivers in my opinion, so they got some answers. They gotta to fix our defense. Also, let's not forget and we spoke about this last week as well. How would these linebackers look. You know, we talked about who needed to be breaking out this year. My two guys I was talking about Layton Vanderesh and Jaylens and

those two guys yesterday did not look good. And now Lake Vanderesh is going to be missing some time with the broken collar ball talking about six to eight weeks here. That's a problem because Joe Thomas, who filled in for him. Joe Thomas is what he is. He's a backup linebacker. And the more they put Joe out there, I think the more he's going to get exposed. Church. Yeah, I agree with you one hundred percent. And then this is

where that injury to Shaun Lee comes in hand. I mean, this is a guy who filled inadmirably for Vander Eshe last year, in the thirteen games that he started. This is where that depth is starting to lack a little bit. So, like you said, they threw Joe Thomas in there, and to me, Joe Thomas is a solid player. He's a solid, you know, backup guy who can come in and contribute, you know, every now and then, maybe on third down situations and a special team's good or a special teams player.

But I don't think he's the answer there for a full time starter. But what I want to say about this defense is I'm starting to sip the cool date a little bit on Aldon Smith. I know I had my reservations about him early in the season, but he for five years of absence. I mean he would. He was out there and he played pretty well. So I'm gonna start sipping the kool aid a little bit with

neui on Adam Smith. Yeah, yeah, all the Smith was a bright spot definitely, And for everything I said about him, he came out there and he played very well, you know, for how we played overall on defense. One thing I would guarantee you, I will guarantee you this for the season. If we don't stop the run, it's going to be a long, disappointing season. And I say that following up with this, it is very hard for you to become

a run stopping team after the start of the season. Usually, once you can't stop the run, that's just who you are as a team. So so I'm looking for this to be a pain point for us, and we're gonna have to figure out maybe go look at some of the Merideli film and start slanting and getting into some gaps because us trying to two gaps are just playing man and man in shade and have our allow breakers feel that is not gonna work for us. Let me

ask you guys both a quick question here. What did you guys feel about Don Terry po out there, because for me, I just thought his performance was lackluster. I didn't really see that energy. I didn't see that pop. And he was supposed to be a guy that if he's not getting to the quarterback, he can at least and hold up a gap and hold these offensive linemen

off the linebackers. But it seemed to me like each and every down they ran the ball, these linemen were getting up to the second level, and he just had had no effect at all. I just want to know,

you guess thoughts on him. I agree with I expected more, But at the same time, I also could say this, you were hoping that Gerald McCoy was going to be the number one guy to plug the run, and then you thought Don Terry Poe, and then with Poe, you thought you maybe have a rotation of four, you know, four guys in there, and if anything, they knew exactly what to do. I mean, Sean McVeigh schemed up this team, and you know what, like so many other guys, they

were not ready for the punching them out. They got punched in the mount and they kept getting punched them out, and nobody had an answer and fellas you guys played. You just hope that when the red light gets pointed on film that guys are embarrassed and ready to come out here against the Atlanta Falcons and give a better performance, because that was not the kind of performance that any of us expected from the Cowboys and Don Terry Pope and the whole Hot Boys, that whole thing there that

that loom. Yeah, listen, listen. I thought I thought Don Terry Pope and Tristan Hill that was that was just not a good performance. And I would put it on the Hot Boys. And it may sound like I'm being biased, but I'm telling you this. They did not get in a fair shape at being able to rush the passes because, like we said, they did not stop the run, and if you don't stop the run, you won't get any secks.

That's what all the Smith got his won and that was the one opportunity that they had because they could not stop the run and they went third and short all night. So yeah, the three step drop was there all night. They didn't have to take time to do a five step drop to let Rolphs develop down the field because we never had them in a situation where they had to do that and like I said, you got Julio Jones and Todd Gurley coming in and if you don't stop the run, it is going to be

a very very long day. What can Will McClay do in terms of finding some players here? Obviously, um, up the middle, they got issues. Uh did Snacks Harrison ever signed with anybody? Um? I think you're going on the market now, you know, so, so maybe that's something you do. You call some call hey Snacks hello, Um, and you need you need another linebacker here, you can call up Francis Bernard. But you know you've got you've got linebacker

issues here. And as long as you're exposed up the middle, there's going to be some problems with this football team because now people know exactly what to do is say, we'll go up the middle and we don't have to worry about your guys coming from the edge here because we just go punch you right in the mouth until you can stop that. So this is where Will McClay is gonna make his money right now to see what

adjustments they make. And Stephen Jones on one O five three the Fan today and he basically said, no, Earl Thomas. So for all those folks who are hoping to Earl Thomas is gonna get here. No, Isaiah Standback said on Talking Cowboys, and he expected Earl Thomes to be a cowboy on Monday. It is uh what one forty three And that's that hasn't happened, and I don't see it happening there. They got to figure out how to get a differensive tackle. So I'm sitting there here now saying,

Snacks Harrison, come on down, you know what him? And well, until recently, man, I hadn't I hadn't even realized that Eric Reed wasn't on the team. And we've been talking about Earl Thomas and and and you know, I think Colin Kaeferny put out a stat the man said, two franchise records last year, you know, and it was one of the best dvs in the league. And we've been talking about Earl Thomas. This dude was sitting on the sidelines.

If you want a really productive safety, but you know, we know that's not gonna happen, but I'm gonna put it out there is if you're looking for a guy and you really wanted to safety, you wanted one that bad that was gonna make some plays and especially coming here and help you stop the run. You got one look for Yeah, but yeah, I think that would I think that would be a great, a great choice now that you brung that up with Eric reib because I know I had, you know, I thought going into this

game he would he would play decent. But my guy Darian Thompson, man, he just didn't show up yet yesterday. I mean, whether it was miss tackles or just not being in the right place at the right time, it was just not a good game for him. Now, I understand it was one game, but as a guy that's coming in, you're mean you were already blow on the totem Paul. You had a great camp and they elevated

you into the starting position. You can't go out there and have games like this, especially you know, you weren't, like I have high draft pick or a high free agent value pick it up. So when you get these opportunities out there, you can't squander them like that. And he just let one go by the wayside. This past week, the Cowboys defensive wards exposed by the Rams on Sunday Night Football on NBC twenty to seventeen is the defeat. They take you. You're checking out the players last brought

to you by Hotels dot Com. I'm dow We Scrugs, Danny McCray, Berry Church. They're two former Dallas Cowboys safeties. I am a longtime Cowboys reporter. When we come back, let's dive into the offense here. A major injury for the offense also issues a third dawn. The Cowboys did not get it done. Let's dive into that next right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hey, they're Cowboys fans with Ty Cleaners at Home pickup and delivery. Cleaning

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our homes. So let's dive into that offense as the Cowboys end up taking that l to start the season twenty two seventeen. On third down, the offense for the Cowboys was three to twelve. That's not good. They took three sacks in the game. Dak Prescott was one for seven for eleven yards on third down. Fellas, that is not winning football. All right, I'm gonna give you the floor, Danny McCray on it cool because listen, for as much as we just talked about the defense, at the end

of the day, they only gave up twenty points. All right. If you go into the game with the offense that we have and you say our defense is given up twenty you would expect to win that game nine times out of ten. Now, just to start with this, shout out to Zeke. He had a hell of a game. He is he was the shotted star of our offense. Not to get to the negative goodness greatness, is this the office that we're gonna run that we would define

as explosive? I mean, how many how many intermediate and short routes did we run last night versus how many times did we go deep? I'm confused on how you plan on having three one thousand yard receivers with the gameplay that we came up with, and in to you and Neui, hey man, I wonder bet Mark Cooper had like fourteen targets a way over what y'all talking about, but the one target that he should had was on

fourth and three. This is the same thing that happened last year when the Mariy Cooper is not on the field on fourth down, and we all looking like, what the heck is going on? How do you not draw up the play? And at least if you're gonna run that route, put a Maray Cooper right there in the slot and run that route with him. Even if it's man to man. It's a pick play, so it's not like he having he's having to beat Jalen Ramsey or whoever's coming to one on one. This is a scheme play.

Let him get out there and run it. This whole offensive scheme to me, besides getting the ball, as Zeke was very confusing, it was a letdown for us to have all this talent and score seventeen points. M M, I mean where do I start? Man, I'm gonna start with the good. Let me let me start with the

good man, all right. I gotta get like, like mccrai said, gotta give hats to Ezekiel Elliott and in obvious I gotta give a little bit of credit to telling Moore as well, because they schemed up a good way to get Ezekiel Elliott involved, and not only the Russian game, but the passing game as well. And last year we didn't see enough of that. We didn't see enough of Ezekiel out of the backfield catching the ball doing what

he can do. He's one of the most talented backs in the NFL, so heights goes off to them for getting him involved in the past game. But other than that, I just cannot see any any greatness out of this. I mean, our offensive line, which was supposed to be a strength now maybe two or three years ago it was a strength, but now it's kind of dwindling a little bit. I mean, there were so many instances where

Aaron Donald just ragged off people out there. Now. I know he's one of the greatest defensive players in the NFL right now, maybe in the history, but for him to just go through your offensive lineman like a hot knife through butter, it just didn't make sense. I saw one play where he literally ran through Connor Williams, picked up Ezekiel Elliott, who is not a small man, and

threw him into Dak Prescott. Now, you cannot let that happen if you're on the offensive side of the ball for the Dallas Cowboys and Tony's And to Danny's point, where he said, all we're doing is throwing you know, short yards, short yards. I understand why. I mean, they just couldn't get into your protection there. They had Aaron Donald having his way, they had Michael Brocker's having his way over there. And the guy from Chicago, I believe his name is Floyd, the defensive end, he had his

way out there as well. Leonard Floyd had his way out there as well. So if you're Dak Prescott, this reminded me a lot of that Houston game we saw on Thursday where Deshaun Watson was running for his life. Now, it wasn't that bad, but it was on par with it. I mean, it's got every time he looked down the field, he had a hand in his face and somebody barreling down at him. So if I'm a part of this offense, I like what they did with Ezekiel Elliott, but they

have to shore up the middle of this line. I know lyell Collins on the outside missed, but it will get him back in a couple of weeks. And they had Steel I believe, and they're replacing him. And he played. He didn't play too bad. He gave up one sack late, but other than that, he didn't play too bad. It was the interior part of this line that has concerns for me because that's the most veteran part of this

line right now. So you know, they got to figure out something or they're not gonna win a lot of games with giving up pressure like that. Aaron Donald is putting up a Hall of Fame resume to go to Canton. And I've been to the Hall of Fame ceremonies many times and they show you know, they have your signature video. You know there's this one move that you have. You know it's Joe Montana throwing that that touchdown pass to John Taylor's troit Man, you know, putting up the number one.

You know, at the Super Bowl twenty seven for Aaron Donald, it will be him boolldozing Connor Williams, lifting up Ezekiel Elliot and throwing him down. You know that's gonna be the Aaron Donald. You know, that's the video that's gonna be for that here. Just also, I mean, look, he gave he gave Zach Martin to work here. I mean he went up and down between the Cowboys center and guards in this football game. And and Joe Philbin new offensive line coach of brother bro Hamm. Philadelphia is coming

in here twice then taking on the Cowboys. You've got Washington who had eight sacks against Philadelphia yesterday. That defensive line is good. The old line here for the Cowboys, whoa something's got to get better. Connor McGovern was inactive for this game, and we keep hearing that Connor mcgovernor is a strong guy. And at once Connor McGovern can get on you and lock you up, you're gonna be there. Connor Williams is a guy that we've talked about not

having enough strength. Do I look at it and just say, hey, man, that's just Aaron Donald. He is who he is. But I also know Fletcher Cox that the Eagles has come. They got a good d line over there with Payne and company with with with Washington. So I'm wondering how long does this young man end up holding on to this job. It's just one game, but they've got to start to ask themselves. Do people think they might have

some kind of book on the Cowboys? Because Joe Looney is a guy who's not Travis Frederick and yesterday they got abused. Man, that thing was sad to watch. I mean that that old line got abused right up the middle. Yeah, and from the jump, I feel like we missed Frederick's presence in there. I mean, not only was he a great offensive lineman when it comes to strength and being able to understand what the defense is trying to do to him, but he was basically that quarterback of the

offensive line. I mean, he got everybody situated where to go. Watch this stunt here, watch this DT stunt right there. I mean, this guy knew pretty much the game like it was the back of his hand. And we missed him yesterday. As you saw that Joe Looney. He's a pretty good center, but I mean he's not on par with Travis Frederick right now. And I tell you another big loss, and I'm surprised they didn't take more advantage

of this earlier in the game. But with Blake Jarmon going down with could be an aco and being out for the year, that could be a big time loss for the Cowboys because I think he was a mismatched nightmare. And I know it was a big time loss for my fantasy team because he gave me one point, so it was what was gonna do with that? I think I saw that it was a acl tear and it was. It was very disappointed to see shots coming in and drop everything they came his way. Yeah, it was that.

That was not a good sign for what you have in tighten In. I'm sitting there watching, like, goodness, Grace, is this a drop off? This is this is what we have now? That was that was not good. But shout out to Blake jarman Man. You know, I hope he Hills are fast and it's ready to come back next year because that you know that that sucks for him. I tell you what it feels. From a personal standpoint,

I like Dalton Shulton. I enjoyed talking to him, But from a players standpoint, I just I hadn't been that big on him. Now people were talking about what a great camp he had. But you get into the game. This is your opportunity and you're dropping balls. Looked out for Sean Tune, the big kid from number eighty four from Michigan. He can block better than Schultz, and let's see if he Let's see if he can perform better.

And obviously Schultz will get a shot this week. But once again, Will mcclay's got to go out here on the market and start to find somebody because I do not think Dalton Schultz can be there number one tight end. I just don't see that happening, and neither can Blake Bell. So they've got to go out and find somebody as well. So Carl Snax Harrison find a tight end out there who can pass for something similar to what you got

out of Blake Jarwin. But there is an issue right there at that position right now, because nobody on this team is close to being able to do what Blake Jarwin did. They were backups for a reason, and it's another huge hole for the Cowboys as they get ready to face the Atlanta Falcons. They're going to have to score this Sunday at at and T Stadium, because even though the Falcons got drilled by Seattle, I mean they beat them up from jump, they still were able to

throw the ball through in the air. I mean Matt Ryan had garbage, he had garbage yards, but they were four hundred twenty seven of them. Um, So the Cowboys have got to fix this thing and try and try and make some changes here. So so so, because I haven't heard you guys really speak on it, Well, what do you guys think of the play selection. As far as the passing game, I mean, I know you say we were under pressure, we had some time to make

some plays, but I played selection. To me, I just didn't see that where we had that many we took that many chances, and the one chance to take was on fourm down when we were down three. And you know, other than that, I didn't I didn't see much and what that one deep pass was at the end of gallop. And you know, other than that, we I don't feel like we tested them at all for the for the speed and the athletic ability and potential that we have

at the receiver position. And even before Blake Jardon went down, I don't think we stretched the field enough or took any chances to make those deep defensive backs play on us. I look at this and I say, boy, um, new group of guys, all coaching together offensively and defensively. M not having an opportunity to have a preseason and see

how things go, where they're going to react. I'm thinking, and I would be hoping that if I were a Cowboys fan, that this Monday would be used for the coordinators and and everybody else on the staff to look at this game play and understand that they got handled, they were out coached, and how can they better serve and put their players in a better position to take

on the Atlanta Falcons. I'm not going to burn the boat like so many people on Twitter want to, not gonna say that Kellen wore should be calling the plays like some people are saying on Twitter. You have to look at this tape and say, Okay, we were not where we needed to be. We had all this height, we've failed. How do we make sure we're not owing too? You got you gotta look at this tape and burn it and just know that Sean McVeigh and his and his crew out coached you. How do you get ready

to face Dan Quinney Atlanta Falcons and get out here? Try? How many seventeen point games are you giving them before you snatched the play calling out of Kellen's hands? Because right now you watching Mike McCarthy fe on the sideline and I sit to your texts right now, Louis, you always talked about j G being with you know, he just sit there and just collapped. I didn't see much from Mike even all right, I didn't see much from he doesn't call offensive players, he doesn't call defensive players.

So really he's just out there, you know. So, I mean, how many of these seventeen point or under twenty point games are you gonna give before you know, you sat to the playbook. You say, I'm the play caller. Now, now, look, I think he got he got one more game. They got one more game. If I'm Mike McCarthy, I'm night little man, I'm not. I'm not getting dragged in him up because you can't call him players. So I'm I'm telling him, like little Bank, get your had together. You

got about one more game. Man, Well look you got the Atlanta game, and the third game is gonna be a real good talent because you got the Seattle Seahawks. And I watched a lot of that Seahawks Atlanta game yesterday and they look good defensively. Man Day brought Jamal Adams off the end a few times. I mean, Matt Ryan just have a whole amount of time while Todd Gurley got a touchdown in the game the Atlantis. That

Atlantis run game didn't get going at all. Here. So the next two games home against Atlanta and then going up to Seattle, the play calling better be they bet they need to be in the thirty point range. And here's my emphasis on that. It's got to be in the thirty point range because this defense is built for them to have a lead and then they can just go ahead and have their pass rushers tall. It doesn't work.

You gotta protect them and you can't have another game where the other team has got the defense on the field for thirty five minutes. So this comes the heat starting to come on Kelly Moore and and he's got to be better because this, the way they played yesterday is not the way the Cowboys are going to be able to win the NFC East. In my opinion, they got to be scoring thirty points a game. Mike McCarthy said, that's what they were gonna go do. They didn't do

it in game one. Let's see if they can go ahead and get it together for game two. Let's not overreact here too much. Okay, let's not overreact too much. Let me tell you something, my man, my man j G watched that for sixteen games straighter that got him put it on the part of here, all right, So you're telling this it's no more rookie season for Kellen Moore. All right, we said the same thing last year about the slow starts and not being able to put up

points until you too far behind. So all right, one game. It's cool if Mike McCarty sit here and watch us for sixteen. But lady knew it. Kool laid has gone and this is and that will be solely on Mike McCarthy for allowing that to happen. Okay, okay, I mean, what else can you say here on the Monday other than you got improve you know, you got to get better. I mean, you know, everywhere except specialties specialties Specialtiams look good last night. Now I give them that. I think

they miss the field go. Other than that, their playoff covers was was good. All right, let's take another break here all the players Lounge brought to you by Hotels dot Com. That's Burry Church, Danny McCray. I'm knew he scrugs right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hey they're Cowboys fans with Ty Cleaners at home pickup and delivery.

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makes the best hot dogs. The Petagyne griller or they all be Franks will score to complete that tailgate meal. Piagne Meets has hickory smoke sausage, hot links, Polis Sausage, and the best hickory smoke bacon in ham around available at your local retailer. And a proud sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys, It's Petagyne Meats. Taste the difference to the players loud all right, Welcome back to the Players Lounge. Cinema drive Ins brings a classic nostalgia of a drive

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they're called pass interference. As Dak Prescott is trying to take the Cowboys down the field, he hits Michael Gallant there now in field goal territory, and all of a sudden, the flag comes out. Jayalen Ramsey sells it very well, and they say that Michael Gallant pushed off. From my perspective, it looked like these guys were allowed to play all night long and till then you're both former defensive backs.

Here was that offensive past interference? I'll start with you, McCray. Absolutely, listen. The thing is, if the shoe was on the other foot, Cowboys fans will be going nuts if that flag is not called. To me, this is obvious enough to see that he's pushing them back on a favor route, I mean on a on a nine route. It's obviously watching it right here on tape, and you gotta call it. If you don't call it, it should be challenging then

and then overturned or whatever they should do. I think that's absolutely the right call, and it put us in a horrible situation. But you know, if you're the reference, you're seeing that, you gotta make that call. Don't hold the flag. Yeah. Look, I'm I'm a defensive back. I'm a defensive player by heart, and I mean that that was passing deference. I mean it was TICKI tag. It was a tickie tag. I mean they were both hand

fighting and jostling the whole way down the line. But the one thing that got um gallup exposed right there was just the extension of the on. If he could have got away with just a little kind of a shoulder nudge or doing that old whitten where he used to push you off with the elbow, if he could do something like that, it would have been fine. But the full extension of the arm is just a it's a telltale sign right there. And they had to throw the flag. And then I got on social media and

I heard all this. You know, if it wasn't for the flag, he would have won the game. And you can't if you're the Dallas Cowboys, you cannot let it get down to that point where it's in the ref's hands to make a decision or not. And obviously that flag was offset by the earlier flag that should have been thrown for the hands to the face on an interception of the Who's yet? So look, I mean the refs they're not perfect, but I think they did a great call right here. I mean, the arm was the

arm was extended, Yes, Jalen Rams he sold it. He's a great artist or he's a great actor when it comes to that. His neck was all back like he was in a car accident, but he sold it well. But it was the right call. Gallop At cought with the extended arm. You can't do nothing about that. You just can't let it go down to the refs to

make that type of decision. I hate when fans, but I hate when fans do that, like we ain't moved the ball all day, all of a sudden now so we're gonna score as soon as we get down there. Don't make no thing sense. My Badne. Just just frustrations, just frustrations. Just build a note. Let's talk about the other other play in the game that and this is the one that's getting Mike McCarthy a whole lot of heat.

With eleven fifty to go in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys, on a fourth and three decide to go for it. Could have easily kicked the field goal and tied the game at twenty. They run. They run a crossing route. Ceedee Lamb doesn't go deep enough in his route to get to the sticks. Dalton Schultz on his route. They don't think he ran it deep enough either. A lot

of people are saying Mike McCarthy was wrong there. I was talking about it last night on TV, So I'll give you guys the floor here church your thoughts on that call. Should he kicked the field goal? No? To me, I think he went for it. He took a gamble. You know, it was still early in the fourth quarter, so it wasn't like it was a last second gamble and they would have no time on the clock to come back. I think he just showed that, you know, he had trust in his offense. You know, were they

struggling pretty much all game. Yeah, they were struggling a little bit, but he saw this as an opportunity to take reins, to take control of the game, and he believed in his offense, so he threw him out there. I mean, I've seen so many times where JG. Sorry to bring him up in this, but JG would get thrown under the bus in ridicule for not being to not being a gambler and playing it too safe. So you know, I have no problem with him. Get going forward right here. The thing I have is, you know

they drew it up for CD Lamb. Like McCray pointed earlier in the podcast, why not draw it up for your best receiver Amari Cooper out there and maybe he'll be able to run it past the sticks and get a first down. But even though you gave it to Cede Lamb to get the first down, I thought this guy was supposed to be a magician after the balls

in his hands. He's supposed to be this guy that can catch the ball and make amazing things happen after the catch, with the yards after the catch, and to me, every single time he caught the ball last night, he was getting thrown around like a rag doll. I'm not sure. I thought he was a bigger body type player, but he seemed kind of frail out there, and that hit by the safety that it wasn't even that vicious, but

he just went straight down. So hopefully next time when he gets the ball in his hands, he can make something creative happen. But I have no problem with the call right there. It was a he had, he had trusting in his team and then it just didn't didn't work out the way he wanted to. Yeah, same here. I have no problem with the call. I don't the reason. I don't think it made sensible because the stats that

we put out earlier horrible. On third down, we hadn't really been moving the ball with the exception of that drive, So if we're doing analytics, the likelihood of us making that play is very low. Tie the game up. But if you're gonna go for it that, I mean, that's your right, right, go ahead and try to capitalize on that. But give the ball to your hundred million dollars I've been saying this for like three weeks now. The one hundred million dollars man should be the focus like every

other team. If you're watching Arizona, play. They running that play for DeAndre Hoppins. If you're watching Green Bay play, they running that play for Devontae Adams. Why why are we not doing the same thing. I do not get it? And uh And with that play on CD Lamb, the other guy also made a great play, right you. You would almost think that the Rams knew that play was coming because they played it perfect. If you look at it,

nobody got picked and a Murray Cooper was covered. He ran a little sit down and the crosses were covered, so you would look at it say, man, they must have no that was covering because they played that perfectly. Church mccraig, you're both correct on this, and I'll back you as well. The execution of the play was the problem. That's what I said on TV last night. And I didn't have a problem with the play call. I understood what they were doing. Their defense hadn't been good all

night long. You had a little bit juicing. You thought, okay, let's go ahead and go. CD Lamb is finding out a couple things here when he watches the film all Monday. One you gotta run to the stick. And two they when they tackle in the NFL this in Oklahoma well, you know you're catching the ball, you're just rushing these dudes off and you run it. I mean they hit you here and they go. And I thought the Rams DBS did a great job last night it being physical

with the Cowboys receivers. They did not make anything easy at all. And that one play where the referee said that Cooper caught the ball and was a fumble, which it wasn't. I mean Ramsey just stuck it up in there. So they were physical. But this is a game where I think Cowboy fans are a kind of lying to themselves and not wanting to admit LA was better last night.

They were more physical, they were ready to play. They were just better in every opportunity the Cowboys had in order to really kind kind of take control of the game. They couldn't do it. Even when they were up fourteen thirteen. You said in yourself, I don't know how they're doing it here. It's one to grow on, man. That's why I'm not going to trip out like so many people are here. There's a whole lot of mistakes here that

we won't see. What happened last year when the Cowboys been three and old and everybody told about how good they were. It's about making a reservation with a Super Bowl in Miami, and d even Da later on said, yeah, we were snipping ourselves. Well, but he's snipping themselves today because they are stinking and everybody's going to look at that film and say that stunt, that stunt gotta work on. This play calling's gotta get better. Um, yes, yes, so

there there's fifteen games to go. There's fifteen games to go. Go Aheadmocrat. I know, I know you're not worried, right, because all these things can be fixed. What should worry you is in game time crunch time situation. We just watched the Last Dance, whose numbers getting called at the end of the game. On Last Dance, Michael Jordan when he wasn't there, Scottie Pipple was upset because they didn't

call his number. Give me the numbers that should be called in big time situations for the Cowboys on offense twenty one nineteen right and four twenty one nineteen twenty four should beat up. That should be the only numbers that should be getting called. Yeah, when I say nineteen, obviously you're taking it for I'm you know, I'm putting right there. But to me, you know, if I'm talking about who am my playmakers? Who am I gonna live and die with? Yes, it should be twenty one and nineteen,

that's where you need to go. Um, So look, so, so what are we doing that has to be addressed. That's where Mike m This is where Mike McCarthy steps in here. Guys, this is where Mike McCarthy steps in here. This is where you have to This is where you have to say to yourself. Okay, Um, former Super Bowl winning KT coach who decided to allow somebody else to call the plays, Get on a play caller, Get on a play caller, get in him and say what were you seeing? What are you doing? And this is what

I need to see. So so the I think that this is correctable, Danny, I don't think it's the end of the world. Heam listen. It should not have to be. It's two hundred million dollars worth of talent out there. You out there, any thoughts and now one of them get out look at say any million from sea churns.

Go ahead, go ahead ahead. I'm not I'm just saying, you got you got two hundy, you got you got thirty out the quarterback, which also I'm gonna lean on and say this is probably why he did not get paid, like like we thought he should get paid because he's going he's on a play it out year, he's getting thirty, Zeke getting over seventy, and then you got Coop getting the hunted all right, and you don't think it's any one of those like come on, man, give them the ball.

This don't make no sense. Yeah, I mean offensively. Offensively, I'm not worried. I mean, you got it just too immensely talented to not get some type of success going on towards this season. To me, it's defensively and it's in the trenches. I mean, that was Mono Imano football right there. There was no you know, you know, trick them up here and we're gonna, you know, do this or do that. It was Mono Imano and their offsive line literally blew our defensive line off the ball. Man

to man that there's there's no excuse for that. I mean there's no type of scheming or nothing like that. They just got bloom off the ball. And for me, that's worries. I'm going into the season. This you guys have played. You know what Monday is like here after a loss like this, This is where we're gonna see what Mike McCarthy as a head coach can do. And last year you had all off season to play with the analytic and be in the basement. Here. Let's see

how your team reacts. Let's see if they're ready to play the Atlanta Falcons as your home opener coming up on Sunday, And then can you get ready after that they get on a plane and go up to Seattle. The next two football games to me are going to be very critical because you don't want to start oh and three you can't. I don't think you can start one and two. You've you've kind of figured this thing out here really quick here, and I think that it's

it's doable. And oh, by the way, Will McClay is going to have to figure out how do you feel a hole of Lake Vanderesh linebacker? And how do you get better up the up front of the defensive line. They they've got to figure out how to bring some

more help into the middle. And that's why I brought up Snacks Harrison as a guy that the Cowboys need to be thinking about especially since they've got some money under the cap, and bring that guy in here, because they could be a long season if they can't stop the run. When you start thinking about two games against Washington, two games against Philadelphia, they're pretty good. Cleveland's got a good defensive front as well, so they can't be half

stepping around here on this. They got to play Baltimore, by the way, Calais Campbell got, you know, Danny a buried church when you play with I mean, this could be an issue, man, this could be an issue, a huge I mean, look what they got. Look what they got in Washington. I mean they weren't got eight sacks yesterday. I mean Chase Young he had a sack and a half, and he got Carrigan out there. I mean his division it ain't. I mean, I thought it was just a

two man race turned into a one man race. But now, I mean, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know that the book is out for me right now. I'm not even looking that far ahead. I'm gonna tell you this, Atlanta has historically been bad on defense. If we don't come out they showed it. We could play some offense again against Atlanta. You can scrap the rest of that stuff. All right. If we can't put up points on Atlanta, we can't run the ball and get

some passers completely against Atlanta, we are some serious trouble. Yes, they must control the clock. They need to win on third downs. All right, that's it for the Monday moaning. Okay, we've been moaning for forty five minutes about the Cowboys here on the players lunge about you by hotels dot com. But Tuesday we'll have all the fantasy number is in here,

Church and McCray. We'll see how you guys they will dive into that, and hopefully Wednesday we can can check in with Will McClay and see exactly you know what moves the Cowboys are making to try to prove this club as they get into the Sunday game against the

Atlanta Falcons. Lake Vandaresh gonna miss six to eight weeks minimum, that we're told right now with that broken colar bone and tight end Dalton Schultz, I mean Dalton, but tight end Blake Jarr went out for the year with ACL with Dalton Schultz now being the Cowboys number one tight end, So there are issues to discuss We'll do it all week with you. We appreciate everybody that tuned into the Players Lounge right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.

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