December 12, 2025 • 13 mins
Cowboys take on the Vikings with the playoffs still alive.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I am Sam Free, your host today along with Shane
running the program, keeping us on time, or at least
as close as possible, with my long winded country ass
throwing us behind the clock every segment.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Are you the one who all I know you host
your obviously your own podcast The Cave of the Biggest Puma?
Do you are you? Also? Do you run that show
yourself as well in terms of like the audio and
everything as well.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
No, which is why we haven't done a show all week.
This week, we're taking our holiday break early because my
producer extraordinariy co host over there, the Great LG. He
decided to skip down and go on a tour of
Japanese toilets for the last thirteen days.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I can't tell if that's like a code for something.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
No, No, that's there's no no euphemism, no urban dictionary required.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
He so he he's he.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Works as a cameraman for the Spurs, so when they
have home games, he's he's at the he's at the
barn working the camera for the you know, JumboTron in
in the arena.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
But his name's LG. That fits so perfectly. It's picture perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Oh, it's spectacular and he's a DJ on the side,
so it's DJ LG. There's a lot going on. There's
a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Going on with l Joe.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now he uh, you know, the Spurs are on this
mini rodeo road trip without the rodeo. They've ended up
being out of town for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So he saw the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He had some airline miles, and he jumped the country
and went on a tour of Japan.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
He it's actually cool.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
He had he found a bunch of his dad's old
because his dad was a broadcast nerd like all of us,
and he found an old eight millimeter camera, an old
polaroid you know, single image camera that prints it out.
He found a couple other cameras and he took them
all with him to Japan. So he's been getting a
(02:09):
lot of badass footage on old eighties you know, nineteen
eighties era technology cameras and such.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
She's gonna have had that look from like a camera
from like fifty years ago, but it.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Was really just last week exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And and LG's really good at he's really good at
running a show, but he's also just really good at
any kind of camera work, which is probably his first
first talent. I would say, ahead of making sure my
you know, audio from the X files plays or whatever
(02:45):
we're getting into. But no, the Japanese toilet part of it.
He enlightened me two weeks ago the last show, the
last podcast we did the are you Are you unaware
of how their advanced Japanese toilets are than what we
have here.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I've seen like snippets of like how modern I guess
you call modern and like technologically advanced that they are,
like they shoot like water and like a like a
fountain style like you see a vegas.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
There's some bidet activity taking place. There's also the seat
is heated. It's ready for you whenever you go sit down,
I tell you, look, the more.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I would never get up.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
At first, he said it as a thoroughway joke that
he was touring Japan to you know, search for toilets,
and I was like, wait, what the hell does that mean?
And that's how I was educated myself on the advancement
in technology that they are working with over there. So yeah, no,
we didn't do any podcast this week, but he will
(03:51):
be back. We'll get back on it next week. Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Here on the Andy Everett Show.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Though we've got a football happy hour to jump into,
and I mentioned at the top of the show, there
the overarching feeling I'm getting listening to you know, different
Cowboys podcast, listening to some DFW, you know, sports talk radio.
The vibes going into this game feel like cautious, right
(04:21):
I see. I was gonna argue it feels like there's
not nearly enough respect being paid to this Vikings team
because of the obvious issues they've had offensively at the
quarterback position.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
But you look at the rest of that roster.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
As you mentioned earlier, it's a team that won fourteen
games last year. It's a team that last week got
all of their starters on both sides of the ball
back healthy for the first time since Week one this season.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
It didn't matter, but they at least are back.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
It's a defense that is top ten of their eighth overall.
More importantly, the thing the Cowboys do best throw the ball.
Cowboys are the number one passing offense. The Vikings are
the number four passing defense. So there are signs where
(05:18):
you want to look at individual matchups across the board,
specifically with the defense led by Brian Flores.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
They lead the league in blitz rate. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So, like what I was getting to was that I
thought you were Sam's cautious because I've seen more people
say like, yeah, the Vikings team has not played well,
but unfortunately there's areas that they have that actually could
pose a problem for the Cowboys. Like, for one thing
is that I don't know if you know this or not,
but the Vikings average more turnover worthy plays per game
(05:53):
than the other team in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, that's a Brian Flora's defense for you.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
No, no, no, I'm saying the offense.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Oh, the offense, but the Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Defense has the least amount of turnovers cause a turnover
worth he plays on defense in the NFL. And then
they I think they have like three interceptions all year,
and most of turnovers actually fumbles, which are way more
rare than interceptions, but somehow they have more the other
way around. But the other aspect of it is that
if you heard the press conference they had on Wednesday,
(06:22):
obviously Trevon Diggs is trending towards eventually returning, but Brian
Schottenheimer made it seem like the best interest might actually
be to keep him out because he used the words,
and this is paraphrasing. We have to look what's in
the best interest in him and the team. And I
would argue that the secondary has actually looked better now
that there's no Kayer Elam, and since Trevon Digs has
actually gone on the IR that him coming back would
(06:44):
actually be detrimental because if you take it against this
receiving core of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, obviously this year,
both of them are not doing as good as they
normally would. Justin Jefferson has two touchdowns all year.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
By the way, Yeah, Brandon Aubrey has more fantasy points
than Justin Jefferson.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And you would think that against the Cowboys secondary, which
has let quarterbacks like Bryce Young, Jordan Love, Russell Wilson
and others like light them up, that this would be
a game in which j. J. McCarthy could actually do
some damage because he has the weapons to do it.
The offensive line has been kind of up and down.
I think we expected more of someone like Christian Darisol
and the center Ryan Kelly, even though obviously he came
(07:20):
back from injury, but the offensive line has been really
has been I guess you could say average for them
or something like that. But the problem is that the
areas in which the Vikings are actually playing well at
are areas in which the Cowboys have I guess you
could say, have lacked defensively. And so I think the
Cowboys should win this game. But I'm very much more
cautiously optimistic just because the things that the Bikings do
(07:42):
the do do well have done well, I should say,
because I don't want to they do.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Do or just say it twice.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Would would we actually work in Minnesota's favor?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, I completely agree with you.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's where you know, looking at the you know, matchups
across the board, the the places where the Cows are inefficient,
the Vikings are, that's their most efficient part of their game.
Going back to the fact that what the Cowboys it
also works the opposite way. What the Cowboys do really
(08:13):
well is what the Vikings do best at defending. So
I think you're seeing a matchup of a Week offense
against a weak defense, a week Minnesota offense against a
weak Dallas defense, and a strong Minnesota defense against a
strong Dallas offense. So it does feel like the points
(08:37):
of strength align against each other across the board. Which
I mentioned. You know, I think the key man. I
think the key, the key in this game Sunday Night
is not one of the twenty two players that's gonna
be on the field. I think it's Brian Flores and
his ability to get pressure to Dak. Obviously mentioned, the
(09:01):
Vikings have the highest blitz rate of anyone in the league.
It's forty nine percent, So basically half the time they're
sending an additional rusher, they're sending some sort of blitz,
and it's it's not your traditional.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
It's not your traditional.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Extra guy on the edge or a linebacker you know,
sneaking in into the box, or a random corner sliding
in for a blitz. It's way more exotic than that.
It's way more his ability to hide and cover, conceal
what who's coming. Where they load the box and then
(09:41):
all scatter as soon as the you know, ball is snapped,
you're seeing. That's That's the place where I know Dak
has been statistically the best quarterback in the league this
year against the blitz, but going up against Brian Flores
defense is something that potentially could trip up I think
(10:04):
the offensive line. It's where a guy like Javonte Williams
becomes so important because the weakest part of the Vikings
defense is their rush defense. But more importantly, Javonte Williams'
ability to pick up the blitz has been a big
part of the reason why Dak is the best quarterback
in the league against the blitz this year. That's where
(10:28):
I think that is one of those kind of underneath
the radar matchups of Javante and the interior offensive line.
You know, Tyler Booker's look great, but he's still a rookie.
BB's only in year two. If there's any issues with
communication on the interior part of the offensive line for
(10:48):
the Cowboys, it could be ugly because that's what Brian
Flores traditionally. A lot of his blitzes are coming right
off the back of one technique or even a nose tackle,
where you're having the main pressure being applied to the
interior of the offensive line instead of coming in from
(11:09):
the sides. Which, uh, that's where I go back to
Javonte Williams being key to help offset some of these
exotic Brian Flores blitzes.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
I got some numbers for you I want to read
off to hit me. Okay, So the Vikings have the
second highest pass rush win rate at forty four percent.
That's forty four percent on all pass rush attempts.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
They they have thirty one percent run stock win rate,
which is twelve, which is still pretty solid. The Cowboys
offensively have a sixty five percent past block win rate,
which is twelve, twelfth best, and a seventy one percent
which is seventeenth in the NFL run block win rate.
So you would think, right then and there, the battle
is probably gonna be fought right there in the trenches
(11:50):
because something has to give. Like you said, Brian Flores
dials up blitz as he gets to the quarterback in
different ways. And the Cowboys offensive line, despite a lot
of the faults probably being especially from the tax position,
for the most where, I've done a good job keeping
Dak upright all year. And like you said, he is
number one, his the highest QBR in the NFL when
when when when blitzed, and so you would think that
(12:11):
he's he's he's Taylor made for a game like this.
But because because the Vigans have found so many ways
to get to the quarterback throughout the year, does leave
a little concern, especially because Tyler Guidon is probably not
gonna play play again this week. Nate Thomas did not
look good last week. He's been kind of up and
down this year. And Terror Steel is hard to gauge
because he's a really good run blocker. He's just so
inconsistent in pass protection.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, and that's where, uh, you know, we saw on
Thanksgiving the perfect example of where if you didn't if
you if you didn't know that Dak was best in
the league at at facing the blitz, all you had
to do was watch on Thanksgiving because that was spag
sending the blitz.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
The only guy that blitz is more than Steve Spagnolia
is Brian Flora.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
So, I mean we've seen what it can look like.
You mentioned digs though, coming up in the next segment.
Let's talk about some of the personnel, maybe additions by
subtraction as you suggested, or maybe getting healthy at the
right time, as I tend to believe. Let's get into
(13:18):
that next here on the ticket
I am Sam Free, your host today along with Shane
running the program, keeping us on time, or at least
as close as possible, with my long winded country ass
throwing us behind the clock every segment.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Are you the one who all I know you host
your obviously your own podcast The Cave of the Biggest Puma?
Do you are you? Also? Do you run that show
yourself as well in terms of like the audio and
everything as well.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
No, which is why we haven't done a show all week.
This week, we're taking our holiday break early because my
producer extraordinariy co host over there, the Great LG. He
decided to skip down and go on a tour of
Japanese toilets for the last thirteen days.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I can't tell if that's like a code for something.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
No, No, that's there's no no euphemism, no urban dictionary required.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
He so he he's he.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Works as a cameraman for the Spurs, so when they
have home games, he's he's at the he's at the
barn working the camera for the you know, JumboTron in
in the arena.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
But his name's LG. That fits so perfectly. It's picture perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Oh, it's spectacular and he's a DJ on the side,
so it's DJ LG. There's a lot going on. There's
a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Going on with l Joe.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now he uh, you know, the Spurs are on this
mini rodeo road trip without the rodeo. They've ended up
being out of town for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So he saw the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He had some airline miles, and he jumped the country
and went on a tour of Japan.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
He it's actually cool.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
He had he found a bunch of his dad's old
because his dad was a broadcast nerd like all of us,
and he found an old eight millimeter camera, an old
polaroid you know, single image camera that prints it out.
He found a couple other cameras and he took them
all with him to Japan. So he's been getting a
(02:09):
lot of badass footage on old eighties you know, nineteen
eighties era technology cameras and such.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
She's gonna have had that look from like a camera
from like fifty years ago, but it.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Was really just last week exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And and LG's really good at he's really good at
running a show, but he's also just really good at
any kind of camera work, which is probably his first
first talent. I would say, ahead of making sure my
you know, audio from the X files plays or whatever
(02:45):
we're getting into. But no, the Japanese toilet part of it.
He enlightened me two weeks ago the last show, the
last podcast we did the are you Are you unaware
of how their advanced Japanese toilets are than what we
have here.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I've seen like snippets of like how modern I guess
you call modern and like technologically advanced that they are,
like they shoot like water and like a like a
fountain style like you see a vegas.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
There's some bidet activity taking place. There's also the seat
is heated. It's ready for you whenever you go sit down,
I tell you, look, the more.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I would never get up.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
At first, he said it as a thoroughway joke that
he was touring Japan to you know, search for toilets,
and I was like, wait, what the hell does that mean?
And that's how I was educated myself on the advancement
in technology that they are working with over there. So yeah, no,
we didn't do any podcast this week, but he will
(03:51):
be back. We'll get back on it next week. Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Here on the Andy Everett Show.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Though we've got a football happy hour to jump into,
and I mentioned at the top of the show, there
the overarching feeling I'm getting listening to you know, different
Cowboys podcast, listening to some DFW, you know, sports talk radio.
The vibes going into this game feel like cautious, right
(04:21):
I see. I was gonna argue it feels like there's
not nearly enough respect being paid to this Vikings team
because of the obvious issues they've had offensively at the
quarterback position.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
But you look at the rest of that roster.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
As you mentioned earlier, it's a team that won fourteen
games last year. It's a team that last week got
all of their starters on both sides of the ball
back healthy for the first time since Week one this season.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
It didn't matter, but they at least are back.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
It's a defense that is top ten of their eighth overall.
More importantly, the thing the Cowboys do best throw the ball.
Cowboys are the number one passing offense. The Vikings are
the number four passing defense. So there are signs where
(05:18):
you want to look at individual matchups across the board,
specifically with the defense led by Brian Flores.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
They lead the league in blitz rate. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So, like what I was getting to was that I
thought you were Sam's cautious because I've seen more people
say like, yeah, the Vikings team has not played well,
but unfortunately there's areas that they have that actually could
pose a problem for the Cowboys. Like, for one thing
is that I don't know if you know this or not,
but the Vikings average more turnover worthy plays per game
(05:53):
than the other team in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, that's a Brian Flora's defense for you.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
No, no, no, I'm saying the offense.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Oh, the offense, but the Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Defense has the least amount of turnovers cause a turnover
worth he plays on defense in the NFL. And then
they I think they have like three interceptions all year,
and most of turnovers actually fumbles, which are way more
rare than interceptions, but somehow they have more the other
way around. But the other aspect of it is that
if you heard the press conference they had on Wednesday,
(06:22):
obviously Trevon Diggs is trending towards eventually returning, but Brian
Schottenheimer made it seem like the best interest might actually
be to keep him out because he used the words,
and this is paraphrasing. We have to look what's in
the best interest in him and the team. And I
would argue that the secondary has actually looked better now
that there's no Kayer Elam, and since Trevon Digs has
actually gone on the IR that him coming back would
(06:44):
actually be detrimental because if you take it against this
receiving core of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, obviously this year,
both of them are not doing as good as they
normally would. Justin Jefferson has two touchdowns all year.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
By the way, Yeah, Brandon Aubrey has more fantasy points
than Justin Jefferson.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And you would think that against the Cowboys secondary, which
has let quarterbacks like Bryce Young, Jordan Love, Russell Wilson
and others like light them up, that this would be
a game in which j. J. McCarthy could actually do
some damage because he has the weapons to do it.
The offensive line has been kind of up and down.
I think we expected more of someone like Christian Darisol
and the center Ryan Kelly, even though obviously he came
(07:20):
back from injury, but the offensive line has been really
has been I guess you could say average for them
or something like that. But the problem is that the
areas in which the Vikings are actually playing well at
are areas in which the Cowboys have I guess you
could say, have lacked defensively. And so I think the
Cowboys should win this game. But I'm very much more
cautiously optimistic just because the things that the Bikings do
(07:42):
the do do well have done well, I should say,
because I don't want to they do.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Do or just say it twice.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Would would we actually work in Minnesota's favor?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, I completely agree with you.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's where you know, looking at the you know, matchups
across the board, the the places where the Cows are inefficient,
the Vikings are, that's their most efficient part of their game.
Going back to the fact that what the Cowboys it
also works the opposite way. What the Cowboys do really
(08:13):
well is what the Vikings do best at defending. So
I think you're seeing a matchup of a Week offense
against a weak defense, a week Minnesota offense against a
weak Dallas defense, and a strong Minnesota defense against a
strong Dallas offense. So it does feel like the points
(08:37):
of strength align against each other across the board. Which
I mentioned. You know, I think the key man. I
think the key, the key in this game Sunday Night
is not one of the twenty two players that's gonna
be on the field. I think it's Brian Flores and
his ability to get pressure to Dak. Obviously mentioned, the
(09:01):
Vikings have the highest blitz rate of anyone in the league.
It's forty nine percent, So basically half the time they're
sending an additional rusher, they're sending some sort of blitz,
and it's it's not your traditional.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
It's not your traditional.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Extra guy on the edge or a linebacker you know,
sneaking in into the box, or a random corner sliding
in for a blitz. It's way more exotic than that.
It's way more his ability to hide and cover, conceal
what who's coming. Where they load the box and then
(09:41):
all scatter as soon as the you know, ball is snapped,
you're seeing. That's That's the place where I know Dak
has been statistically the best quarterback in the league this
year against the blitz, but going up against Brian Flores
defense is something that potentially could trip up I think
(10:04):
the offensive line. It's where a guy like Javonte Williams
becomes so important because the weakest part of the Vikings
defense is their rush defense. But more importantly, Javonte Williams'
ability to pick up the blitz has been a big
part of the reason why Dak is the best quarterback
in the league against the blitz this year. That's where
(10:28):
I think that is one of those kind of underneath
the radar matchups of Javante and the interior offensive line.
You know, Tyler Booker's look great, but he's still a rookie.
BB's only in year two. If there's any issues with
communication on the interior part of the offensive line for
(10:48):
the Cowboys, it could be ugly because that's what Brian
Flores traditionally. A lot of his blitzes are coming right
off the back of one technique or even a nose tackle,
where you're having the main pressure being applied to the
interior of the offensive line instead of coming in from
(11:09):
the sides. Which, uh, that's where I go back to
Javonte Williams being key to help offset some of these
exotic Brian Flores blitzes.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
I got some numbers for you I want to read
off to hit me. Okay, So the Vikings have the
second highest pass rush win rate at forty four percent.
That's forty four percent on all pass rush attempts.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
They they have thirty one percent run stock win rate,
which is twelve, which is still pretty solid. The Cowboys
offensively have a sixty five percent past block win rate,
which is twelve, twelfth best, and a seventy one percent
which is seventeenth in the NFL run block win rate.
So you would think, right then and there, the battle
is probably gonna be fought right there in the trenches
(11:50):
because something has to give. Like you said, Brian Flores
dials up blitz as he gets to the quarterback in
different ways. And the Cowboys offensive line, despite a lot
of the faults probably being especially from the tax position,
for the most where, I've done a good job keeping
Dak upright all year. And like you said, he is
number one, his the highest QBR in the NFL when
when when when blitzed, and so you would think that
(12:11):
he's he's he's Taylor made for a game like this.
But because because the Vigans have found so many ways
to get to the quarterback throughout the year, does leave
a little concern, especially because Tyler Guidon is probably not
gonna play play again this week. Nate Thomas did not
look good last week. He's been kind of up and
down this year. And Terror Steel is hard to gauge
because he's a really good run blocker. He's just so
inconsistent in pass protection.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, and that's where, uh, you know, we saw on
Thanksgiving the perfect example of where if you didn't if
you if you didn't know that Dak was best in
the league at at facing the blitz, all you had
to do was watch on Thanksgiving because that was spag
sending the blitz.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
The only guy that blitz is more than Steve Spagnolia
is Brian Flora.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
So, I mean we've seen what it can look like.
You mentioned digs though, coming up in the next segment.
Let's talk about some of the personnel, maybe additions by
subtraction as you suggested, or maybe getting healthy at the
right time, as I tend to believe. Let's get into
(13:18):
that next here on the ticket
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