September 22, 2025 • 46 mins
Derek Eagleton, Ambar Garcia, Voch Lombardi and Bryan Broaddus discuss latest Dallas Cowboys news and notes on Cowboys Break.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Cowboys Let's go.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Are you ready for a break?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Are you ready for a break?
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Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Ready for a break?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
And so much for that.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com
right with Mbar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Votch Lombardi and
Derek Eagleton.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
It is Monday, September twenty second, twenty twenty five, Season
twenty one, Episode number forty two.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Welcome to the latest edition of The Break.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
We are live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the
Star War presented by lglg's the world's number one old
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Speaker 4 (00:58):
Today we break down Cowboy.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
He's lost Yesterday they lose in Chicago thirty one to fourteen,
a game that had some some interesting things on the field,
but also a couple of injuries, or at least a
injury that would certainly I think inhibited what they were
able to do yesterday, and we'll see how long that
will last. I got my crew here today. Let's dive
(01:21):
in Cowboys lose thirty one to fourteen. What was the
overarching storyline of the game.
Speaker 6 (01:26):
Wotch.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Let's start with you and.
Speaker 7 (01:27):
By you show you don't want to go first and
point in advice and be like ha ha.
Speaker 8 (01:32):
Ha, how do we won? I can make fun like, hey,
yeah there was, but right now I'm not in a
joking in a joking mood right now, of course this
is this is bad.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
Execution is the theme of this thing, mister Hugson, whether
it be on offense, whether it be defense, you getting
the reds on a whole bunch. You gotta be able
to finish middle eight. Hit you again four minutes right
before the half, four minutes after I think you had
an opportunity to score twice in there, four minutes right
before you could have got a touch down the field.
Go and got the ball back and try to score again.
(02:04):
But execution, defense. We're gonna have a lot of time
to talk about it. But just right now, large picture execution.
I think I heard the player say that communication was
an issue at this time. I think it all goes
into that communication.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Execution.
Speaker 7 (02:18):
Knowing what you're doing being his zonne player versus man
player is all missed.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
Up so.
Speaker 8 (02:25):
Well, it's still early in the season, but at the
same time, I'm just having a hard time thinking how
you can actually improve this team on defense, specifically, how
can you improve on defense for the remainder of the season.
I know we have still many many weeks left and
(02:47):
a lot of football to play, but do you actually
have the personnel to execute what you're trying to do?
Is the voice that's leading that group, the defensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Is there?
Speaker 8 (03:03):
Like how much wiggle room do you give him? What
is the limit here? Knowing that this is a and
this is what I'm struggling with. We know this is
a new coaching staff here with the Cowboys, but we
know how how would you say this? Like, you don't
have a lot of room because of the amount of
(03:24):
pressure that continues to build. You must exactly and it's
not your fault. It's just like what the Cowboys history
brings to this point. So it's just at what point
do you decide to make any big changes? Because honestly, yes,
three weeks in, it's still early. It's still early. But
(03:46):
at the same time, there's no patience there. And what
is what you see is not a sign of improvement.
If anything, you left that game hurt with key players
being hurt, and Brian Choldenheimer he said he doesn't expect
any of these injuries to be major, but still you
keep getting hit, hit and hit, and there doesn't seem
(04:08):
to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
For the defense, specifically.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
This offense was it's what it needed to do. I mean,
it needed to score points for them to win. And
we can talk about the defense. We knew going into
this game the defense was going to struggle. We all
picked the games. Every one of us gave the Bears
thirty points, basic lit exceptional Fosh. I mean, I understand
what Watch does with his scores and stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I gave him third. I thought it was put off.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, I thought, I think you're right about that. But
to me, we all knew that there was a capability
of the Bears finding themselves, whether it was DJ Moore.
You know, we talked about Roman dounesday. They didn't really
run the ball all that great the first two weeks.
They got some traction yesterday a little bit with Swift,
we made the quarterback look absolutely great. The way we
knew that going in where this team now is its
(04:56):
offense is going to have to win games, and so
I'm going to focus on what they didn't do on offense.
I didn't I'm going to focus on the fact, yeah
they ran the football. Yeah that was all great and dandy,
But Alsden, you get seventeen points down and you're not
running the football anymore, Maybe you should have tried. Maybe
you should have just kept going, you know, maybe that's
what would have kind of you know, especially down on
the goal line instead of throwing an interception. Maybe should
(05:17):
have tried to run that one in So, to me,
the offense lost you a football game is because I
knew going in the defense was going to not be
good enough. We do. We know that as Cowboy fans.
There is a big time struggle. When you watch this
film on NFL dot Com or you go back and
watch the game, you're going to see they missed some
opportunities on offense. They missed some whole shot throws against
(05:40):
Cover two where Dak checked the ball down. Am I
blaming it on Dak?
Speaker 9 (05:44):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Am I blaming on some pass rush problems they have. Yeah,
a couple of guys broke down here and there, and
all of a sudden they run a max protection and
then they have their right it's going to their left
tackle break down and give up a sack. You know,
these are the kinds of things that this offense can't have.
The defense isn't good enough. I'm not gonna even talk
about really the defense anymore, because there's really nothing more
(06:05):
you can talk about this team. This team is only
gonna be as good winning games as their offenses. But
maybe they'll get some guys back, maybe the defense will rally.
I just don't see it right now. I just don't
see that. But if they're only gonna score fourteen points
in a game and miss opportunities and turn the ball
over and give up sacks and pout during a game
(06:26):
after a dropped interception, this team ain't gonna win many games.
Speaker 6 (06:31):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Honestly, it was clear to me, Brian last week, after
what we saw against the Giants, that this is a
team that's going to need to score a bunch of
points every week, and literally.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
If they don't, they get a stop.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
If they don't, you got to exactly, you're gonna have
one or two stops in the game where you gotta
make the play like they did against New York the
one interception that was the play of the game for
the defense. They gave up a lot of yards, a
lot of points. I think that's going to be, at
least for now what we've seen, it suggests that's going
to be the twenty twenty five version of the Dallas Cowboys.
And if that's the case now, it puts a ton
(07:05):
of pressure on your offense. And I think that's why
you don't want to have a team that's so heavily
one way or the other, because if the offense for
whatever reason, and I'll get into this in just a second,
my belief is that it was the loss of Seed
Lamb and we went back to basically what we were
last year, which is when you don't have two options
out there, basically teams say we'll take away your top option.
What you're gonna do now and they don't have another
playmaker that they'll consistently go to the bank that But
(07:27):
that being said, if their offense isn't able to really
put up a lot of points, if they're not able
to outscore the opponent, it's just that they're gonna have
a day like they had yesterday and it won't even
be close.
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Well, again, we talked about this yesterday, Derek. The scariest
part to me is when you look out the schedule,
this half of the season is supposed to be quote
unquote the easier half of the season. Like after the bye,
you start facing other teams that you know it's gonna
(07:59):
be a tough, tough challenge. So it's so concerning to
know that you're struggling this much. Even in the wind
against the Giants, you were struggling because you allowed look
at how that game turned out to be, and it
was against the Giants, no disrespect, but he was against
the Giants. So again, when you see how you're struggling
right now and you look at what's ahead, it's like,
(08:22):
oh my god, how do how do we fix this?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, you hope that maybe you get some guys back, Yeah,
you know, and watch and I were talking about that
this morning a little bit, that maybe you get some
of these corners back that can play the way that
maybe Fluse wants to play. But there's there's things on
this defense that are just it's glaring when you have
guys that are wide open, and I'm you know, when
I worked across the hall, there I would if I
(08:45):
didn't know what a coverage was, I'd go ask a coach.
There's a situation where DJ Moore standing wide open in
the end zone and I'm thinking, are they playing man
on one side and zone on the other. I'm confused
by what coverage they're playing here. I think the players
are confused by what coverage they're playing, you know, And
unfortunately they actually get a jam at the line of scrimmage.
What happens to Digs He slips, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Something we asked him to do, we wanted him to be.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We don't release more press, and then all of a sudden,
he slips, and then now the ball. You know, the
quarterback wasn't even looking anywhere else. That's where he was
going to throw the ball, and it just so happened
that your player fell down. But this defense right now
is not good enough. They're just not and maybe getting
some personnel back will help it. But it is going
to turn in. You've essentially become the Cincinnati Bengals last year,
(09:31):
a nine to eight football team where you had to
hope that you could score twenty eight thirty thirty five
points and maybe you do get the one or two stops.
That's what the Bears were able to do. The Bears
were able to get one or two stops in that
football game, and that's what's separated for them.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
You know, Brian to that point, what's disheartening about it
is even the guys that they're going to get back
to me, they are not at the positions where I
think Dallas is struggling most on defense. I think they're
struggling most right now at safety and at linebacker. Yeah,
shoes coming back, but you're still gonna have another linebacker
out there, maybe two other linebackers out there. And I
just don't think right now in the scheme that they're
(10:07):
being asked to play. It looks like and again this
is just from looking and what you think you're observing,
it looks like they're a bit lost on you know,
when you're playing a zone. Yeah, you got to play
the zone, but you also have to understand what the
team is throwing at you. Who are the players that
could possibly threaten your zone? And sometimes you move outside
of that zone because the guys that are that are
left that are in the area that could threaten your area,
(10:28):
and they just don't seem like they have a.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Great feel for where they should be playing the zone.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
And I don't think they're gonna get much help from
the injured, from the guys that are injured that will
be coming back in those areas basically up the middle
of the field. That just seems like it's something they're
gonna have to get better or you're gonna have to
change the scheme. And I'm not sure that either one
is something that you do in season and think that
you're gonna get a lot better from it.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
Maybe not hurt guys coming back. But we did see
wy Ye play a little bit.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I know you're gonna bring that up.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
So yeah, Donovan Wilson and hey, the coaches are gonna say,
we just wanted to see blah dah dah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
But you know, we all we all got.
Speaker 7 (11:03):
Eyes and and one year is better fit to do
some you know, deeper zone things than Donovan is and
and and maybe just maybe it's me trying to be
as positive as I could possibly be when Revel just
watching his film and in college, they did a bunch
of the zone stuff, some match things he can play, man,
but for the most part it was a bunch of zone.
(11:24):
Maybe it's a fit thing right. If you know Revel May,
he may not be a better corner than you know
uh kyer Elm right now, but if he understands better,
then maybe he's a he's a better fit right now.
As far as your your safeties go, you are right
there there. There's there's nothing you could do outside to
go get big change right now. And I think that
this is a coaching staff front office. It could be.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
I just I just I just started working here. Maybe
they want to lean on the guys that make more
money right now. I don't know, but I think there
are there are some young guys that can move around
a little bit better, a little bit more athleticism, and
you know, sometimes you just got to take guys out
of some fire. Donovan Wilson, when he's in a whole
bunch of space, that's not that's not good for him.
When it's right in front of him, he broke up
this almost touchdown, but it was right in front of him,
(12:09):
and all he had to do was take three steps
and hit somebody. That's what Donovan does. He does well,
that's what he's real, real good at. But if he
has to play backwards and be responsible for three other
people around him with five with five offensive players coming
right at him, and he has to figure, I'm not
calling nobody, you know, you know, less mental process guy
than anybody else because I you know, we don't know
(12:31):
the play calls, won't or anything else. But just what
it looks like from here is that the defense as
a unit, the DB's as a unit, they don't all
know what the you know, what their teammates are doing.
I actually made this analogy, Derek, if you don't mind. Sure,
as a center as offensive lineman, I played much better
when I knew what my guards were doing. You know
(12:52):
what angles am I taking as a as a down block?
If I know somebody was pulling right behind me right,
or if what tackle was doing, just hey, we need
to double team this guy. It's just certain things that
you do differently when you know what the man next
to you is doing. It looks like the Cowboys defense.
They're trying to learn their assignment and they have no
clue what the man next to him is doing. So
(13:13):
on the digs up the digs thing right, so he
slips or whatnot because he's jamming and the you know,
slip whatever, But maybe he doesn't do that if he
knows that Hooker behind him is not helping, not help
because Hooker's in man. So Hooker stepped over. And maybe
if Diggs is thinking, okay, well, if I missing slip here,
maybe I'm fine. But if Diggs thinking okay, well, I
(13:34):
know Hooker's not, maybe he plays a little more conservative
right on some of these third and twos. There's this
image floating around, flowing around social Media's hilarious. It's third
and two and all the corners is like ten yards away.
Maybe if you go, all right, they're back there. Let
me step up on this third and two a little
bit because I at least have a feeling what they're doing,
(13:55):
or if it's third and ten, don't jam. I think
everybody's got to come together and figure this out. What
you got to ask yourself is how many games do
you lose trying to figure this thing out. I think
that's the biggest issue for the other Cowboys right now.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
And I will throw the sin real quick. I know
last week we talked a lot about Donovan Wilson at safety.
I think Mollie Hooker had some issues that game as well.
Last game caught Hooker played pretty well this game, that
four down touchdown, the DJ Moore looked a lot like
he didn't know that there was a guy that was
behind him that basically just went around behind him and
was just standing in the end zone.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
And I think that was his zone.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Again, we don't know that because we don't know the call,
but that's certainly what it looks like on film. And
so I think again, yes, you can say, Okay, we
can put wan Ye in there, maybe take some of
those some of those plays for Donovan Wilson, but Malik
ain't playing.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
He didn't play.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
Great yesterday either. So that's what I'm talking about. When
you talk with the linebackers and the safeties. You might
be able to throw a guy in there here or there,
but there are gonna be other guys that are still
out there that are still not getting it done. And
that becomes a question for me of does this coaching
staff are they teaching this in a way where the
players can comprehend it and then can they play fast.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
With it or are they just not cable?
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Is this outside the wheelhouse of what they do best,
in which case you're putting them in a bad situation.
I think this is deeper than just the players. I
think the coaches have a lot of culpability.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And there's no question that the coaches have some involvement
in this one too. And but to me it may
be the answer is if you would like to go
ahead and see Bell play down and then Thomas played deep,
if you want to play some but you might be
in the same situation. I don't know about playing Bell deep.
I think Bell is a much better player near the
line of scrimmage. So if you want to continue, I mean,
(15:34):
once again, early in that football game, I saw Hooker
playing down and Wilson playing deep, and I'm going to
myself and I'm watching the tape, and I'm going I'm
expecting something bad to happen when that goes, you know,
I'm expecting the other team to find, Oh, look there's
number six playing in the middle of the field. Let's
try and throw a ball on him and see what happens.
(15:55):
It's that they are, they're personnel right now, the players
that they have not playing well enough. But you're absolutely right, Derek,
the coaches need to take some responsibility for this as well.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
All right, we're gonna take our first break. We'll come back.
Let's dive into the offense, talk about what went right
and wrong for the Cowboys yesterday on offense. We'll be
Backdallas Cowboys dot com radio.
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Speaker 4 (18:54):
Welcome back. It is second segment of the Breaklock in
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Speaker 5 (18:57):
At the start of the segment brought you about blockchain
dot com. All right's talking about the offense DAK Yesterday's
thirty one or forty seventy eight percent completion rate, two
hundred and fifty one yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and
eighty point three rating.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
How do you assess his play?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I think he could have been better, for sure, I
think he could have been better. I think there was
some times where and I understand that there was a blitzers,
there's some blitzers and he's kind of thrown to the side.
It's third and third in the mile, you know, and
you're thinking, Okay, maybe it's a couple options. I'd go here,
maybe try and take George Pickens down the field and
(19:32):
see if he could draw a pass. Interference would be
always a good option. And then also though you take
if they're going to play cover two on you, there
was a couple opportunities for some what I call hole
shots and the whole shot. The great example of the
hole shot was the one that that Turpin caught. If
you remember late in the game where he got whacked.
That is one of those covered two hole shots. And
they had a couple of those. They had some of
(19:53):
those in the game, and Dak checked the ball down.
I mean, maybe there was a blitzer. Maybe he wasn't
really sure about, you know, letting that guy get into
that area. Maybe he wasn't totally comfortable and he could
have he could have punished the Bears on some of
their coverage. And I'm going to say this too, you know,
Vatch and I break down the opponent's defense on Thursday,
and we kind of talk about who we would attack against.
(20:17):
Against McLeod and Nashan Wright, they were ten of eleven
and a touchdown against that group. On the other side,
against Stevenson, they were three of ten. So you kind
of wonder yourself. You go into a game and you're thinking, like, Okay,
they're compromised at they're compromising the secondary. How am I
going to scheme my guys onto those players and keep
(20:40):
just attacking them, you know, And that's where I think
we get away from some things. I think Dak. I
think Dak could have thrown I think Dak could have
had a Russell Wilson like game the other day. You know,
I think he you know, there was some shots down
the field, there were some opportunities, but you know, he said, Okay,
I gotta just check it here, check it here, you know,
Toder Ferguson, I'm off for Ferguson catching balls. But Ferguson's
(21:02):
run after catch is not what it once was, just not.
So that's the thing that was a little bit just swarm.
Glad Dak did what he had to do, but man,
they missed some plays on that field. They could have
really maybe turned that game around.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Brian brought us.
Speaker 7 (21:17):
Would you say that you're I don't want to say critical,
because that's like, you know, a big word there, But
like critique of that comes from the idea that the
defense isn't playing great at all, because because normally I
feel like I like that that side of deck. You know,
if the if the D ball is there, take it,
of course, but if it's a little weird, but you
can maybe hero ball a little bit, I don't mind
(21:38):
him taking the safer play, like, hey, like get six
yards and move the sticks and we'll just keep playing offense.
If anything I want from this Cowboys defense is just
to don't die so so quickly, buy us some time
for the offense to just kind of figure this thing out.
I go back to the Niners or whatever they got
Mac Jones playing playing.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Quarterback over there.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
But what that d will at least do is buy
you time at least until mac Jones and run game
and all those other guys can figure something out.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
My whole, my whole thing about Dak.
Speaker 7 (22:09):
You would want Dak to go out there and throw
for five touchdowns if he can. I don't want Dak
to be that guy, because when Dak turns into that guy,
he throw picks and he starts sweating, his eyes get
big and look at the screen. I don't want Dak
to be that guy. You know what I'm saying. I
want Dak to just keep the ball safe and let's
run the ball, you know. And look, this goes to shoddy.
I can be critical of YouTube this This is the
first game where I'm kind of super critical of you,
(22:31):
but have a feel for timeouts, how to use him win,
to run the game, clock management, all this kind of stuff.
I think that this goes along with like play calling
and being the head coach at the same time.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Right, Yo, let's let's hold I want to get to
that conversation about game management.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Sure, that's something that we certainly have to talk about,
but just that.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
But but just from the standpoint of Dak and Brian,
I'll throw this like as a part of that question.
One of the things I thought happened was I know
he was taking those checkdowns a lot.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I mean, you could Jake Ferguson.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Jake Ferguson had Word team catch catches on fourteen targets
for eighty two yards, his average six point two yards
per reception.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
That's not a lot.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Part of that, I think also is there was a
time in Jake Ferguson's career when the first guy didn't
necessarily take him down.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
And again, Jake is making the catches. That's good.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Jake is one year.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Yeah, that was one year.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Jake is getting the yards that are there.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Great.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
My expectations for Jake are higher than that. My expectations
is that he is that guy that in that year
made guys miss. He was that guy that if a
guy hit him, he could give him a shoulder and
he got another three or four yards. That's not necessarily
what we sing what we're seeing. So is that also
part of the issue of if you're going to take
these checkdowns, you don't have guys that are necessarily beating
(23:45):
their guy, beating that one person that's out there to
make the tackle to get more than just the yards
that you get in the air.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Yards that you get.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, the only thing that I mean, I have no
problem throwing the ball that I can say, throw the
ball Williams. So the ball to to Ferguson. I'm just saying, though,
when Dak sat on that plane last night flying home
with you guys, he looked at that pad and he's going, damn,
I can't believe I missed that. I didn't see that one.
There was one time too. And just and I sound
(24:15):
very critical of Dak, but and I hate to do
this to him, but he's your best hope. He's got
to play. He has got to be. He's a he's
got to be an m v P. And that's just
where this team is right now.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
And by the way, he was the first two weeks, absolute.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Absolutely and and and you know he played well yesterday.
Don't get me wrong. The inner last interception I put
that on flu on a shot. He run the damn
ball in, Just run it in. You know you're gonna
You're gonna be fine there. But he's going to look
at this and and and you're right, does he force
some things. But I think Dak's to that point where
(24:50):
if if he if he just if he when he
went back and watched that game. He's gonna see Turpin
in the hole. He's gonna see Pickens in the hole.
He's gonna see toll. You don't want to switch route
going up the field open. You know, it's like in
two right before half and this is this is where
shot he got me burning the early time out. You know,
(25:11):
just you burn an early time out. Either run the
either punt it or go for the first don't don't
try and draw people. Just do it. Don't have to
use a time out there to to And then now
you don't have a time out in half. This is
two weeks in a row where you haven't had a
time out at the end of the half. And you've
got a field goal kicker that can make it from
the middle of the sea in the field and see
(25:33):
those are the things. And you know, Dak he scrambles out.
If he throws the ball down the field right before half,
there's an opportunity to maybe get the ball down there
to midfield. But what does he have to do. He
has to throw the ball short and and you know
the clock runs out because he's thrown to a guy
that couldn't get out of bounce. Ferguson, I'm just saying
it sounds very, very critical of Dak. That's not my intent.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
He is.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
He is he has to play at a superhuman level
because of how poorly this defense is playing right now.
And then his best offensive weapon gets knocked out of
the game, you know, and that's you got. You got
a running back now that can average about seven yards
of carry. Might want to put in back there, you know,
instead there used to be a time where you had
to put Lamb and Turpin and others back there. You
(26:18):
don't have to do that anymore. You don't have to
do that anymore.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
You guys have both brought it up now looking at
how the game was managed. Really for me, I think
I'm looking at that period that that position they got.
I think it was four fifteen left in the first half,
and Nick and I looked at each other and was like, Okay,
here you go. Here's your opportunity. This is why you
defer to the second half, is because here's your opportunity
to get points. They're down seventeen fourteen, so like, here's
(26:43):
your opportunity to get points. As we talked about last week,
you get to the middle of field, you got a
kick of that can boom it. So you just got
you gotta get just a few yards, get yourself into
at least a position to get some points out of it.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
What ends up happening?
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Cowboys have a drive that's three and out, give the
wall back here, Chicago, give up a touchdown, and now
you're down ten going into the half. And so it
just to me, how did you How much of that
do you put on their their inability to execute or
maybe the play calling even on that drive, or do
you put on the actual management of that that period.
Speaker 7 (27:16):
It's a little bit of both, because if you miss
out like that's a that's what seventeen point swing gets you,
if you do it properly or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And then they came back and ran nineteen plays on
you after your ex punt.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
That's a it's a it's a it's a totally different drive.
It's a totally different game.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Seven first downs along the way, and they were running
the ball by the way.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
And and and look, maybe you gotta maybe you gotta
talk to the PFF people. Maybe you kick early. You
know what I'm saying some crazy thing because I don't
even understand it, you know, but but maybe kick early.
Then give it to them with three minutes, try to
play some defense and maybe they're less aggressive because of that,
and then you get the ball and then you try
to score. But like the one thing I can give
(27:52):
Maya mccarth and I've been beating him down since I
got here, but they knew how to hit those passes
on the sideline, get out of bounds, and at least
give aure a shot every time that they've had an
opportunity for the middle of eight this year, in the
past three games, they haven't been good at it. They
haven't been good at it going into the half and
getting the ball back coming out of the half. And
I would assume that has to be on shotty knowing
(28:14):
how to navigate something, because look, there's even times in
a game to where you're trying to get them to
jump and you burn a timeout. Yeah, and that timeout
could be valuable to your kickoff operation or something later
on in the game.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Go ahead, bro, were they burned a time out trying
to get them to, like you said, to jump off
sides And you're thinking, like, just just don't do that.
Either go for it or punt it. There's no in between.
There's no in between for me. If if you're going
to burn. And what's happened the last two weeks, They've
missed opportunities to have a time out left like all
(28:46):
of a sudden, Yeah, you complete the ball down the
field and then you have a time out. Well, or
you don't get out of bounce. You use the time
out right there and then be able to take another shot.
So some game management stuff has been a little bit suspect.
Going into halves of these games and then coming out
of half has been a little bit of a problem
the last three weeks. You were great in Philadelphia the
(29:08):
first half of that football game. Second half not so
good the Giants. You came out, but then you kind
of figured some things out a little bit later and
then got the win. Yesterday. Boy, that was just a
bad middle aid for you right there. That just going
in and then you giving up a touchdown out of
that made it even worse.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
All Right, We're going to take our final break. Let's
come back.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Got a few more points I want to make on
the offense, and then we'll dive into a little bit
more on the defense and some deeper conversations on the defense.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
We'll be back. Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Speaker 4 (31:03):
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Speaker 3 (32:04):
Back to the Break.
Speaker 8 (32:10):
At and T Connecting Changes Everything.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Welcome back.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
It is the final segment of The Break Live from
the SWBC Mortgage studios. At the start, we're talking about
the Cowboys loss to Chicago thirty one to fourteen. Up
next Green Bay Packers, and you're now the team, Michael.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
We're going to get a win this week. Desperate team theory.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
All right, we're saying that on Monday. Let's go for it.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
All right, Let's talk about the defense. Caleb William yesterday.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Never beat the Packers real quick, Never beat.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
The on offense. I know we talked about the difference
of how we of course know how different it looks
when CD is not on the field.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
But what do you think and we've.
Speaker 8 (32:51):
Been talking about this offense having so many different weapons
and this and that, what do you think you would
be able to manage it and figure it out at
least in I'm not saying you can deal with going
through the whole season without a CD. But in a
game like that against an opponent like that, what do
you think you have enough guys that can do things
(33:14):
and generate what you need to generate in order to
get into the end zone.
Speaker 7 (33:19):
I could be wrong, and somebody can text me and
tell me if I'm wrong. If Pickens knew all of
the Lamb plays, then I think you would have a
better chance of like getting back Because Pickens is a
he's a great receiver or whatever. I don't think he
knows all the Lamb stuff. I think Pickens run slants,
he runs out, he runs deep. I think that's kind
(33:40):
of what he does. But if but they're talent wise
that they're up there, I just think Lamb does more
because I don't know whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Man, you're onto something, but yeah, you're onto something.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
It seemed like Turpin was doing the Lamb stuff.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah you're on something because if you watch I was
watching Pickens as that game was going on, and I
couldn't reckanize his routes. I couldn't recognize I couldn't distinguish.
You know, you're right about the outs and the slants
and stuff, but everything else, I couldn't distinguish what routes
he was running. And I wonder if all of a sudden,
you know, him having to do more, you know, affected
(34:16):
the way that he played. But I'll give credit. Turpin
battled his ass off. He really did for you know,
lam being down. He really went out there and played hard.
I think I think Tolbert, I mean, people are gonna
blame Tobert for not finishing his block and allowing Stevenson
to get behind and steal the ball away, you know,
I mean they got the ball to the edge. That's
(34:37):
just a great hustle play by Stevenson. But you could
tell that that Turpin was he was engaged and he
was trying to make something happen. And to the point
of Tolbert, there's sometimes where Tolbert just kind of fades
into the bushes during a game. I think there was
times where he was running routes and Dak just didn't
see him. Dak didn't throw him the ball, but man,
(34:57):
they needed they needed pickets. And I was really excited
coming into this game that they kind of maybe unlock
something from Pickens there, but he struggled, especially the interception
that was that was on him all the way Dak
scrambles out makes the throw off the hands Stevenson once
again right there. Got to have that ball. You got
(35:18):
to have that ball. But there was there was some
routes where I just wasn't really really sure what George
Pickens was trying to do to execute to get open.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
All right, let's talk about the defense. Caleb Williams yesterday
was nineteen of twenty eight, sixty eight percent completion, two
hundred ninety eight yards, zero sacks, four touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
First time he's ever not been sacked by.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
The one hundred and forty two point six rating. It
was a career day for him yesterday. The interesting thing
about this defense, though, is that they did play more man.
In the past two weeks they played primarily, i mean
almost exclusively zoned. Yesterday played fourteen percent man eighty six
percent zone.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
It wasn't really a better result.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
As a matter of fact, quite a few times when
they were in man coverage, they had guys that were
giving up large cushions, and then the plays were set
up to where they were basically having to carry a
guy across the field. So if you can imagine that,
so you got a ten yard cushion, this guy's going
across the field. Trying to close that distance is almost impossible.
So you're gonna basically give up a catch of six
seven eight yards at the very least, maybe more so.
(36:21):
All that being said, when you look at it from
the standpoint of what they did schematically, do you think
that this is more of what they should be doing,
playing more of that man or do you think there
are deeper problems than even just that.
Speaker 7 (36:33):
I would rather them play more man, But the cushion
doesn't make sense to me, Like if you're gonna play man, like,
don't give them ten yards.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Like list actually seven point one.
Speaker 7 (36:42):
That was the appreciation. Appreciation Like if it's third and
twenty or something like that. Yeah, you know, you can
back off a little bit, but not that much, like
walk up and actually play these guys. And I'm hoping
Flues isn't worried about giving up the big play because
you give up the big playing zone as well, so
you might as well do something. The whole idea of
zone is to keep things kind of in front of you.
You can kind of see a little bit. If they
(37:04):
getting behind you in zone anyway, just go ahead and
rust some rustle man out there. It can't be that bad.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Flu Yeah, the biggest problem is lack of pastor.
Speaker 8 (37:10):
You make it sound like so easy.
Speaker 7 (37:14):
It's not as easy as I'm making it sound. But
it shouldn't be as difficult as Flues is making it.
It shouldn't be that difficult. And I'll and I'll say that.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
And Jodd even said they might have to like kind
of scale some things back, and I was kind of like,
what it looks pretty scale now, maybe he's asking him
to do things like we're talking about, like Derek was
with DJ Moore. I looked to me like half zone,
half man. I I don't know. I mean, who's wrong?
Was the left side wrong or the right side wrong?
(37:43):
Because they were somebody's wrong, you know, and the way
they were playing it, And Hooker turns and looks inside
like wait a minute, what are we? What are we
doing here? Boys?
Speaker 5 (37:50):
But it seems like the simplest kind of coverage you
could run is man because you know, hey, that's my guy.
They with him right when you when you start playing
zone and certain when you start playing more exotic kind
of zones, especially if your guys aren't familiar with that.
The NFL boves fast. I think that's one thing that
people don't really think about. If you're not a zone defender,
you're not used to playing zone, and you're being asked
(38:11):
to do that. Now you're having to adjust on the
fly as things happen. So what they did a lot
yesterday the Bears offensively, they basically flood a zone. And
what I mean by that is basically they take if
you're playing zone, they'll basically say, okay, well, on this
side of field, we may not have a single receiver
route in coverage. I mean in a route on that
side of the field. You got three guys over there
covering those zones. Now we're going to take the other
(38:33):
side of field, where you may have the same three
or different three, but it's three people, and we'll put
four four receivers into routes and we'll just flood that
area so you can't cover everybody. If you're not a
depth at being able to play zone, then that makes
it even worse because you're like, oh my god, this
guy coming from both ways, which way do I go?
And then you know somebody's past year and here we go, right.
I think that's part of the thing here is that
(38:54):
I don't know if these players are really a depth
at recognizing what's coming at them and being able to
adapt to that and play zone in a way to
where they really can't stop the opponent.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
It's tough. I mean, yeah, yeah, you're not wrong. Can
I say the pass rust though, too? Can I throw
the pass rush in there with you know, with you know,
and or lack of you know? I mean, it's just
it's so evident that just these quarterbacks are feeling super
comfortable and Derek to your point, you know, flooding and
you're making they're making these these coaches or these coordinators
(39:30):
are making it really easy for their quarterbacks, especially with
no pressure. Then all of a sudden, you know, you've
got guys, and it's like that in that game. You know,
Caleb Williams was looking at his receiver when he was
throwing the ball every time he just kind of knew that, Okay,
this is the way the plays called. And and Derek's right, Hey,
we're gonna flood it, and we're gonna guys gonna be
(39:50):
right there, you know, just beyond the sticks. I'm gonna
throw it to him, it's gonna be a first down,
and in a way we go. But they are just
not even when trying to bring extra rushers, just not
even getting close when you when you know, listen, let
me when DeAndre Swift in the first two games Minnesota
(40:11):
de Troit, he's having trouble picking up guys, but here
you are blitzing it and you're making him look like
he's the best running back pass protector in the league.
These are these are things that you're just playing into this.
You're like, it's like the weakness of you know, you're
attacking a weakness, but they're coming away just making it
(40:32):
work because you're not good enough to take advantage of
that situation. So that's the thing to me that's disheartening.
But there to your point, you're absolutely right. I mean,
to me, they can talk about communication. Execution has been
a real problem and I and I don't know if
these guys we talk about practicing out here, do you
practice enough? You know, I had one time a guy
(40:54):
and this is during the Mike McCarthy year, a guy
got called me up on you know phone and goes, hey,
you guys practice down there? Kind of looks like your
team doesn't practice. Wow, you know, and this but this
was last year, you know, and so I just you
wonder with some of the busts that happened or some
of the miscommunications, you have to wonder did you practice?
Speaker 5 (41:13):
You know, well quick before you got I'm gonna let
you get to that point, Brian, as you were talking,
I saw this tweet that our guy Tommy Yarsh put
out about thirty seven.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
Minutes ago, he said.
Speaker 5 (41:22):
Going into Sunday's Week three game, Bears left tackle Braxton
Jones allowed twelve pressures on seventy nine pass blocking snaps
in Chicago's first two games, which led the team. Against
the Cowboys, Jones became just the fourth player in NFL
in the NFL this season to not allow a singer
single quarterback pressure.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
There you go, he had two sacks, and I get it.
Against the Lions, you're going against Aiden Hutchins and those guys. Man,
it's tough. That's tough. But you there are these two tackles. Man. Listen,
we were talking about them on talking about them on Wednesday.
You know, Hey, this is how you got to kind
of it's it's sometimes it just it's numbing when you
(42:03):
watch a game and you're going, why not, why not?
And then you watch and then you see the stats
at the end of the game and it's a loss,
and you go, oh wow, really they completed ten of
eleven balls against na Shon right and against the nickel corner.
But the other they attacked the other guy ten times
and he stopped. You know, he only give up three.
(42:24):
How about those other times? Just stay away and then
go over. We all know who Nashon right now, we
all know, we all know who he is. Nashon Wright
should have been begging to come off that field yesterday,
you know, you know the whole thing. McCloud should have
been begging to come off that field yesterday. I hate
(42:45):
when that happens. I hate when they don't take advantage
of a tackle or put pressure on that tackle, that
offensive tackle. And let me be honest, we kind of
said this felt like that the Bears offensive line was
somewhat better than what the Giants offensive line and so
that game that should have been the big red flag
right there. If you're not getting pressure on the Giants,
(43:05):
you're gonna get pressure on the Bears. That's what we
should have known better.
Speaker 8 (43:08):
Real quick help me with my memory going back to
when Mike Nolan was here and they were having all
those defensive issues and talking about, oh, well, now they
needed to start kind of quote unquote dumbing it down
just to improve the communication, and all of that. Remind
(43:30):
me in that season, did it start getting better once
they started simplifying things that it carried over the whole
year like it never improved a little bit at the end.
I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
I'll say this, this this defense. You're talking about the
Nolan defense being historically bad. I thought the Rob Ryan
defense was worse, you know, And I think the Rob
Ryan defense has got some elements to what this one has.
Where guys don't look like they're in place, they're not coordinated,
they're not coordinated, and Rob's trying to do something the
defense is like whoa wait a minute, what And then
(44:03):
Rob would throw ten guys in the field to try
and cover, you know, try and play defense, and occasionally
forget to put the eleventh guy on there.
Speaker 18 (44:10):
But this that was strategy, this this early, this early
defense has some of that Rob Ryan elements to it,
where guys are running really really wide open.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
Yeah, yeah, I don't recall that season getting you better.
I just remember thinking the whole year like how did
Mike Nolan get so bad at this? Because there was
a time Mike Nolan his defenses worked really good in.
Speaker 4 (44:32):
The NFL, and it's like, how did how did he take.
Speaker 5 (44:35):
And by the way, whatever is happening with with Eberfulus's defense,
That was a time when Eba flu was a really
good defensive coordinator. It was a really good defensive coordinator.
And and I don't know what's happened. I don't know
if it's a meshing of maybe the concepts are just
not working, maybe the players are not capable of doing it.
But but there's something going on with this defense that's
that's deeper than just misplay here, miss misplay there.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
There's something deeper here.
Speaker 5 (44:59):
I think because it is a consistent thing week after week,
play after play that they're just not in the right spot.
Speaker 8 (45:04):
Well and like all positions pretty much all over the defense.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Schottenheimer for the offense this week stuck in the mirror too.
They get it. Shottenheimer needs to look in the mirror too,
that that offense should have done better against that def fair.
Speaker 5 (45:18):
That's absolutely fair. And by the way, we know if
they're gonna win this year, it's offense gonna.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Have to play.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Unfortunately, it's gonna be put on Dak's shoulders. I'm not
I'm just saying he's one of your best players, and
it has nothing to do with how much money you paying,
but he is one of your best players, and he's
gonna have to play the next fourteen weeks like your
absolute best player. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (45:36):
I thought that was a good comparison when you when
you mentioned the the Cincinnati Bengals from last year, because
Burrow had by all accounts, in my opinion, an MVP
caliber season last year nine and that was just basically
because they had no defense. That was the basically that
was the best that they were going to be able
to do. And if he didn't have a great game,
they didn't have it. They did work a shot. And
I don't know if it's that just yet for the Cowboys,
(45:58):
but it certainly is trending that way that if Jack
Fat doesn't have a great year or great game, then
they just won't win. I appreciate you, guys, jump let
me be back tomorrow. We'll take a little deeper look
at some of the topics, some bigger topics around this team.
I want to talk a little bit tomorrow about Yeah,
we'll get some questions. I actually want to talk a
little bit about Cede Lamb and how he got hurt
yesterday and whether that's a good idea when you have
(46:19):
a player as important to your offense as CD Lamb.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
But we'll talk about that tomorrow until the TSAR Brian
Bronis ambergresty. I'm Derek Gildon has been the break Live Radio.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Cowboys Let's go.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Are you ready for a break?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Are you ready for a break?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Ready for a break?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
And so much for that.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com
right with Mbar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Votch Lombardi and
Derek Eagleton.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
It is Monday, September twenty second, twenty twenty five, Season
twenty one, Episode number forty two.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Welcome to the latest edition of The Break.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
We are live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the
Star War presented by lglg's the world's number one old
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LG dot Com, Fort slash O, led Evo.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Today we break down Cowboy.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
He's lost Yesterday they lose in Chicago thirty one to fourteen,
a game that had some some interesting things on the field,
but also a couple of injuries, or at least a
injury that would certainly I think inhibited what they were
able to do yesterday, and we'll see how long that
will last. I got my crew here today. Let's dive
(01:21):
in Cowboys lose thirty one to fourteen. What was the
overarching storyline of the game.
Speaker 6 (01:26):
Wotch.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Let's start with you and.
Speaker 7 (01:27):
By you show you don't want to go first and
point in advice and be like ha ha.
Speaker 8 (01:32):
Ha, how do we won? I can make fun like, hey,
yeah there was, but right now I'm not in a
joking in a joking mood right now, of course this
is this is bad.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
Execution is the theme of this thing, mister Hugson, whether
it be on offense, whether it be defense, you getting
the reds on a whole bunch. You gotta be able
to finish middle eight. Hit you again four minutes right
before the half, four minutes after I think you had
an opportunity to score twice in there, four minutes right
before you could have got a touch down the field.
Go and got the ball back and try to score again.
(02:04):
But execution, defense. We're gonna have a lot of time
to talk about it. But just right now, large picture execution.
I think I heard the player say that communication was
an issue at this time. I think it all goes
into that communication.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Execution.
Speaker 7 (02:18):
Knowing what you're doing being his zonne player versus man
player is all missed.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
Up so.
Speaker 8 (02:25):
Well, it's still early in the season, but at the
same time, I'm just having a hard time thinking how
you can actually improve this team on defense, specifically, how
can you improve on defense for the remainder of the season.
I know we have still many many weeks left and
(02:47):
a lot of football to play, but do you actually
have the personnel to execute what you're trying to do?
Is the voice that's leading that group, the defensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Is there?
Speaker 8 (03:03):
Like how much wiggle room do you give him? What
is the limit here? Knowing that this is a and
this is what I'm struggling with. We know this is
a new coaching staff here with the Cowboys, but we
know how how would you say this? Like, you don't
have a lot of room because of the amount of
(03:24):
pressure that continues to build. You must exactly and it's
not your fault. It's just like what the Cowboys history
brings to this point. So it's just at what point
do you decide to make any big changes? Because honestly, yes,
three weeks in, it's still early. It's still early. But
(03:46):
at the same time, there's no patience there. And what
is what you see is not a sign of improvement.
If anything, you left that game hurt with key players
being hurt, and Brian Choldenheimer he said he doesn't expect
any of these injuries to be major, but still you
keep getting hit, hit and hit, and there doesn't seem
(04:08):
to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
For the defense, specifically.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
This offense was it's what it needed to do. I mean,
it needed to score points for them to win. And
we can talk about the defense. We knew going into
this game the defense was going to struggle. We all
picked the games. Every one of us gave the Bears
thirty points, basic lit exceptional Fosh. I mean, I understand
what Watch does with his scores and stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I gave him third. I thought it was put off.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, I thought, I think you're right about that. But
to me, we all knew that there was a capability
of the Bears finding themselves, whether it was DJ Moore.
You know, we talked about Roman dounesday. They didn't really
run the ball all that great the first two weeks.
They got some traction yesterday a little bit with Swift,
we made the quarterback look absolutely great. The way we
knew that going in where this team now is its
(04:56):
offense is going to have to win games, and so
I'm going to focus on what they didn't do on offense.
I didn't I'm going to focus on the fact, yeah
they ran the football. Yeah that was all great and dandy,
But Alsden, you get seventeen points down and you're not
running the football anymore, Maybe you should have tried. Maybe
you should have just kept going, you know, maybe that's
what would have kind of you know, especially down on
the goal line instead of throwing an interception. Maybe should
(05:17):
have tried to run that one in So, to me,
the offense lost you a football game is because I
knew going in the defense was going to not be
good enough. We do. We know that as Cowboy fans.
There is a big time struggle. When you watch this
film on NFL dot Com or you go back and
watch the game, you're going to see they missed some
opportunities on offense. They missed some whole shot throws against
(05:40):
Cover two where Dak checked the ball down. Am I
blaming it on Dak?
Speaker 9 (05:44):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Am I blaming on some pass rush problems they have. Yeah,
a couple of guys broke down here and there, and
all of a sudden they run a max protection and
then they have their right it's going to their left
tackle break down and give up a sack. You know,
these are the kinds of things that this offense can't have.
The defense isn't good enough. I'm not gonna even talk
about really the defense anymore, because there's really nothing more
(06:05):
you can talk about this team. This team is only
gonna be as good winning games as their offenses. But
maybe they'll get some guys back, maybe the defense will rally.
I just don't see it right now. I just don't
see that. But if they're only gonna score fourteen points
in a game and miss opportunities and turn the ball
over and give up sacks and pout during a game
(06:26):
after a dropped interception, this team ain't gonna win many games.
Speaker 6 (06:31):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Honestly, it was clear to me, Brian last week, after
what we saw against the Giants, that this is a
team that's going to need to score a bunch of
points every week, and literally.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
If they don't, they get a stop.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
If they don't, you got to exactly, you're gonna have
one or two stops in the game where you gotta
make the play like they did against New York the
one interception that was the play of the game for
the defense. They gave up a lot of yards, a
lot of points. I think that's going to be, at
least for now what we've seen, it suggests that's going
to be the twenty twenty five version of the Dallas Cowboys.
And if that's the case now, it puts a ton
(07:05):
of pressure on your offense. And I think that's why
you don't want to have a team that's so heavily
one way or the other, because if the offense for
whatever reason, and I'll get into this in just a second,
my belief is that it was the loss of Seed
Lamb and we went back to basically what we were
last year, which is when you don't have two options
out there, basically teams say we'll take away your top option.
What you're gonna do now and they don't have another
playmaker that they'll consistently go to the bank that But
(07:27):
that being said, if their offense isn't able to really
put up a lot of points, if they're not able
to outscore the opponent, it's just that they're gonna have
a day like they had yesterday and it won't even
be close.
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Well, again, we talked about this yesterday, Derek. The scariest
part to me is when you look out the schedule,
this half of the season is supposed to be quote
unquote the easier half of the season. Like after the bye,
you start facing other teams that you know it's gonna
(07:59):
be a tough, tough challenge. So it's so concerning to
know that you're struggling this much. Even in the wind
against the Giants, you were struggling because you allowed look
at how that game turned out to be, and it
was against the Giants, no disrespect, but he was against
the Giants. So again, when you see how you're struggling
right now and you look at what's ahead, it's like,
(08:22):
oh my god, how do how do we fix this?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, you hope that maybe you get some guys back, Yeah,
you know, and watch and I were talking about that
this morning a little bit, that maybe you get some
of these corners back that can play the way that
maybe Fluse wants to play. But there's there's things on
this defense that are just it's glaring when you have
guys that are wide open, and I'm you know, when
I worked across the hall, there I would if I
(08:45):
didn't know what a coverage was, I'd go ask a coach.
There's a situation where DJ Moore standing wide open in
the end zone and I'm thinking, are they playing man
on one side and zone on the other. I'm confused
by what coverage they're playing here. I think the players
are confused by what coverage they're playing, you know, And
unfortunately they actually get a jam at the line of scrimmage.
What happens to Digs He slips, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Something we asked him to do, we wanted him to be.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We don't release more press, and then all of a sudden,
he slips, and then now the ball. You know, the
quarterback wasn't even looking anywhere else. That's where he was
going to throw the ball, and it just so happened
that your player fell down. But this defense right now
is not good enough. They're just not and maybe getting
some personnel back will help it. But it is going
to turn in. You've essentially become the Cincinnati Bengals last year,
(09:31):
a nine to eight football team where you had to
hope that you could score twenty eight thirty thirty five
points and maybe you do get the one or two stops.
That's what the Bears were able to do. The Bears
were able to get one or two stops in that
football game, and that's what's separated for them.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
You know, Brian to that point, what's disheartening about it
is even the guys that they're going to get back
to me, they are not at the positions where I
think Dallas is struggling most on defense. I think they're
struggling most right now at safety and at linebacker. Yeah,
shoes coming back, but you're still gonna have another linebacker
out there, maybe two other linebackers out there. And I
just don't think right now in the scheme that they're
(10:07):
being asked to play. It looks like and again this
is just from looking and what you think you're observing,
it looks like they're a bit lost on you know,
when you're playing a zone. Yeah, you got to play
the zone, but you also have to understand what the
team is throwing at you. Who are the players that
could possibly threaten your zone? And sometimes you move outside
of that zone because the guys that are that are
left that are in the area that could threaten your area,
(10:28):
and they just don't seem like they have a.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Great feel for where they should be playing the zone.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
And I don't think they're gonna get much help from
the injured, from the guys that are injured that will
be coming back in those areas basically up the middle
of the field. That just seems like it's something they're
gonna have to get better or you're gonna have to
change the scheme. And I'm not sure that either one
is something that you do in season and think that
you're gonna get a lot better from it.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
Maybe not hurt guys coming back. But we did see
wy Ye play a little bit.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I know you're gonna bring that up.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
So yeah, Donovan Wilson and hey, the coaches are gonna say,
we just wanted to see blah dah dah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
But you know, we all we all got.
Speaker 7 (11:03):
Eyes and and one year is better fit to do
some you know, deeper zone things than Donovan is and
and and maybe just maybe it's me trying to be
as positive as I could possibly be when Revel just
watching his film and in college, they did a bunch
of the zone stuff, some match things he can play, man,
but for the most part it was a bunch of zone.
(11:24):
Maybe it's a fit thing right. If you know Revel May,
he may not be a better corner than you know
uh kyer Elm right now, but if he understands better,
then maybe he's a he's a better fit right now.
As far as your your safeties go, you are right
there there. There's there's nothing you could do outside to
go get big change right now. And I think that
this is a coaching staff front office. It could be.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
I just I just I just started working here. Maybe
they want to lean on the guys that make more
money right now. I don't know, but I think there
are there are some young guys that can move around
a little bit better, a little bit more athleticism, and
you know, sometimes you just got to take guys out
of some fire. Donovan Wilson, when he's in a whole
bunch of space, that's not that's not good for him.
When it's right in front of him, he broke up
this almost touchdown, but it was right in front of him,
(12:09):
and all he had to do was take three steps
and hit somebody. That's what Donovan does. He does well,
that's what he's real, real good at. But if he
has to play backwards and be responsible for three other
people around him with five with five offensive players coming
right at him, and he has to figure, I'm not
calling nobody, you know, you know, less mental process guy
than anybody else because I you know, we don't know
(12:31):
the play calls, won't or anything else. But just what
it looks like from here is that the defense as
a unit, the DB's as a unit, they don't all
know what the you know, what their teammates are doing.
I actually made this analogy, Derek, if you don't mind. Sure,
as a center as offensive lineman, I played much better
when I knew what my guards were doing. You know
(12:52):
what angles am I taking as a as a down block?
If I know somebody was pulling right behind me right,
or if what tackle was doing, just hey, we need
to double team this guy. It's just certain things that
you do differently when you know what the man next
to you is doing. It looks like the Cowboys defense.
They're trying to learn their assignment and they have no
clue what the man next to him is doing. So
(13:13):
on the digs up the digs thing right, so he
slips or whatnot because he's jamming and the you know,
slip whatever, But maybe he doesn't do that if he
knows that Hooker behind him is not helping, not help
because Hooker's in man. So Hooker stepped over. And maybe
if Diggs is thinking, okay, well, if I missing slip here,
maybe I'm fine. But if Diggs thinking okay, well, I
(13:34):
know Hooker's not, maybe he plays a little more conservative
right on some of these third and twos. There's this
image floating around, flowing around social Media's hilarious. It's third
and two and all the corners is like ten yards away.
Maybe if you go, all right, they're back there. Let
me step up on this third and two a little
bit because I at least have a feeling what they're doing,
(13:55):
or if it's third and ten, don't jam. I think
everybody's got to come together and figure this out. What
you got to ask yourself is how many games do
you lose trying to figure this thing out. I think
that's the biggest issue for the other Cowboys right now.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
And I will throw the sin real quick. I know
last week we talked a lot about Donovan Wilson at safety.
I think Mollie Hooker had some issues that game as well.
Last game caught Hooker played pretty well this game, that
four down touchdown, the DJ Moore looked a lot like
he didn't know that there was a guy that was
behind him that basically just went around behind him and
was just standing in the end zone.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
And I think that was his zone.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Again, we don't know that because we don't know the call,
but that's certainly what it looks like on film. And
so I think again, yes, you can say, Okay, we
can put wan Ye in there, maybe take some of
those some of those plays for Donovan Wilson, but Malik
ain't playing.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
He didn't play.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
Great yesterday either. So that's what I'm talking about. When
you talk with the linebackers and the safeties. You might
be able to throw a guy in there here or there,
but there are gonna be other guys that are still
out there that are still not getting it done. And
that becomes a question for me of does this coaching
staff are they teaching this in a way where the
players can comprehend it and then can they play fast.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
With it or are they just not cable?
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Is this outside the wheelhouse of what they do best,
in which case you're putting them in a bad situation.
I think this is deeper than just the players. I
think the coaches have a lot of culpability.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And there's no question that the coaches have some involvement
in this one too. And but to me it may
be the answer is if you would like to go
ahead and see Bell play down and then Thomas played deep,
if you want to play some but you might be
in the same situation. I don't know about playing Bell deep.
I think Bell is a much better player near the
line of scrimmage. So if you want to continue, I mean,
(15:34):
once again, early in that football game, I saw Hooker
playing down and Wilson playing deep, and I'm going to
myself and I'm watching the tape, and I'm going I'm
expecting something bad to happen when that goes, you know,
I'm expecting the other team to find, Oh, look there's
number six playing in the middle of the field. Let's
try and throw a ball on him and see what happens.
(15:55):
It's that they are, they're personnel right now, the players
that they have not playing well enough. But you're absolutely right, Derek,
the coaches need to take some responsibility for this as well.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
All right, we're gonna take our first break. We'll come back.
Let's dive into the offense, talk about what went right
and wrong for the Cowboys yesterday on offense. We'll be
Backdallas Cowboys dot com radio.
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Speaker 12 (17:14):
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Speaker 4 (18:54):
Welcome back. It is second segment of the Breaklock in
s WBC Mortgage Studios.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
At the start of the segment brought you about blockchain
dot com. All right's talking about the offense DAK Yesterday's
thirty one or forty seventy eight percent completion rate, two
hundred and fifty one yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and
eighty point three rating.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
How do you assess his play?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I think he could have been better, for sure, I
think he could have been better. I think there was
some times where and I understand that there was a blitzers,
there's some blitzers and he's kind of thrown to the side.
It's third and third in the mile, you know, and
you're thinking, Okay, maybe it's a couple options. I'd go here,
maybe try and take George Pickens down the field and
(19:32):
see if he could draw a pass. Interference would be
always a good option. And then also though you take
if they're going to play cover two on you, there
was a couple opportunities for some what I call hole
shots and the whole shot. The great example of the
hole shot was the one that that Turpin caught. If
you remember late in the game where he got whacked.
That is one of those covered two hole shots. And
they had a couple of those. They had some of
(19:53):
those in the game, and Dak checked the ball down.
I mean, maybe there was a blitzer. Maybe he wasn't
really sure about, you know, letting that guy get into
that area. Maybe he wasn't totally comfortable and he could
have he could have punished the Bears on some of
their coverage. And I'm going to say this too, you know,
Vatch and I break down the opponent's defense on Thursday,
and we kind of talk about who we would attack against.
(20:17):
Against McLeod and Nashan Wright, they were ten of eleven
and a touchdown against that group. On the other side,
against Stevenson, they were three of ten. So you kind
of wonder yourself. You go into a game and you're thinking, like, Okay,
they're compromised at they're compromising the secondary. How am I
going to scheme my guys onto those players and keep
(20:40):
just attacking them, you know, And that's where I think
we get away from some things. I think Dak. I
think Dak could have thrown I think Dak could have
had a Russell Wilson like game the other day. You know,
I think he you know, there was some shots down
the field, there were some opportunities, but you know, he said, Okay,
I gotta just check it here, check it here, you know,
Toder Ferguson, I'm off for Ferguson catching balls. But Ferguson's
(21:02):
run after catch is not what it once was, just not.
So that's the thing that was a little bit just swarm.
Glad Dak did what he had to do, but man,
they missed some plays on that field. They could have
really maybe turned that game around.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Brian brought us.
Speaker 7 (21:17):
Would you say that you're I don't want to say critical,
because that's like, you know, a big word there, But
like critique of that comes from the idea that the
defense isn't playing great at all, because because normally I
feel like I like that that side of deck. You know,
if the if the D ball is there, take it,
of course, but if it's a little weird, but you
can maybe hero ball a little bit, I don't mind
(21:38):
him taking the safer play, like, hey, like get six
yards and move the sticks and we'll just keep playing offense.
If anything I want from this Cowboys defense is just
to don't die so so quickly, buy us some time
for the offense to just kind of figure this thing out.
I go back to the Niners or whatever they got
Mac Jones playing playing.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Quarterback over there.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
But what that d will at least do is buy
you time at least until mac Jones and run game
and all those other guys can figure something out.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
My whole, my whole thing about Dak.
Speaker 7 (22:09):
You would want Dak to go out there and throw
for five touchdowns if he can. I don't want Dak
to be that guy, because when Dak turns into that guy,
he throw picks and he starts sweating, his eyes get
big and look at the screen. I don't want Dak
to be that guy. You know what I'm saying. I
want Dak to just keep the ball safe and let's
run the ball, you know. And look, this goes to shoddy.
I can be critical of YouTube this This is the
first game where I'm kind of super critical of you,
(22:31):
but have a feel for timeouts, how to use him win,
to run the game, clock management, all this kind of stuff.
I think that this goes along with like play calling
and being the head coach at the same time.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Right, Yo, let's let's hold I want to get to
that conversation about game management.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Sure, that's something that we certainly have to talk about,
but just that.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
But but just from the standpoint of Dak and Brian,
I'll throw this like as a part of that question.
One of the things I thought happened was I know
he was taking those checkdowns a lot.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I mean, you could Jake Ferguson.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Jake Ferguson had Word team catch catches on fourteen targets
for eighty two yards, his average six point two yards
per reception.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
That's not a lot.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Part of that, I think also is there was a
time in Jake Ferguson's career when the first guy didn't
necessarily take him down.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
And again, Jake is making the catches. That's good.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Jake is one year.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Yeah, that was one year.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Jake is getting the yards that are there.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Great.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
My expectations for Jake are higher than that. My expectations
is that he is that guy that in that year
made guys miss. He was that guy that if a
guy hit him, he could give him a shoulder and
he got another three or four yards. That's not necessarily
what we sing what we're seeing. So is that also
part of the issue of if you're going to take
these checkdowns, you don't have guys that are necessarily beating
(23:45):
their guy, beating that one person that's out there to
make the tackle to get more than just the yards
that you get in the air.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Yards that you get.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, the only thing that I mean, I have no
problem throwing the ball that I can say, throw the
ball Williams. So the ball to to Ferguson. I'm just saying, though,
when Dak sat on that plane last night flying home
with you guys, he looked at that pad and he's going, damn,
I can't believe I missed that. I didn't see that one.
There was one time too. And just and I sound
(24:15):
very critical of Dak, but and I hate to do
this to him, but he's your best hope. He's got
to play. He has got to be. He's a he's
got to be an m v P. And that's just
where this team is right now.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
And by the way, he was the first two weeks, absolute.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Absolutely and and and you know he played well yesterday.
Don't get me wrong. The inner last interception I put
that on flu on a shot. He run the damn
ball in, Just run it in. You know you're gonna
You're gonna be fine there. But he's going to look
at this and and and you're right, does he force
some things. But I think Dak's to that point where
(24:50):
if if he if he just if he when he
went back and watched that game. He's gonna see Turpin
in the hole. He's gonna see Pickens in the hole.
He's gonna see toll. You don't want to switch route
going up the field open. You know, it's like in
two right before half and this is this is where
shot he got me burning the early time out. You know,
(25:11):
just you burn an early time out. Either run the
either punt it or go for the first don't don't
try and draw people. Just do it. Don't have to
use a time out there to to And then now
you don't have a time out in half. This is
two weeks in a row where you haven't had a
time out at the end of the half. And you've
got a field goal kicker that can make it from
the middle of the sea in the field and see
(25:33):
those are the things. And you know, Dak he scrambles out.
If he throws the ball down the field right before half,
there's an opportunity to maybe get the ball down there
to midfield. But what does he have to do. He
has to throw the ball short and and you know
the clock runs out because he's thrown to a guy
that couldn't get out of bounce. Ferguson, I'm just saying
it sounds very, very critical of Dak. That's not my intent.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
He is.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
He is he has to play at a superhuman level
because of how poorly this defense is playing right now.
And then his best offensive weapon gets knocked out of
the game, you know, and that's you got. You got
a running back now that can average about seven yards
of carry. Might want to put in back there, you know,
instead there used to be a time where you had
to put Lamb and Turpin and others back there. You
(26:18):
don't have to do that anymore. You don't have to
do that anymore.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
You guys have both brought it up now looking at
how the game was managed. Really for me, I think
I'm looking at that period that that position they got.
I think it was four fifteen left in the first half,
and Nick and I looked at each other and was like, Okay,
here you go. Here's your opportunity. This is why you
defer to the second half, is because here's your opportunity
to get points. They're down seventeen fourteen, so like, here's
(26:43):
your opportunity to get points. As we talked about last week,
you get to the middle of field, you got a
kick of that can boom it. So you just got
you gotta get just a few yards, get yourself into
at least a position to get some points out of it.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
What ends up happening?
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Cowboys have a drive that's three and out, give the
wall back here, Chicago, give up a touchdown, and now
you're down ten going into the half. And so it
just to me, how did you How much of that
do you put on their their inability to execute or
maybe the play calling even on that drive, or do
you put on the actual management of that that period.
Speaker 7 (27:16):
It's a little bit of both, because if you miss
out like that's a that's what seventeen point swing gets you,
if you do it properly or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And then they came back and ran nineteen plays on
you after your ex punt.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
That's a it's a it's a it's a totally different drive.
It's a totally different game.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Seven first downs along the way, and they were running
the ball by the way.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
And and and look, maybe you gotta maybe you gotta
talk to the PFF people. Maybe you kick early. You
know what I'm saying some crazy thing because I don't
even understand it, you know, but but maybe kick early.
Then give it to them with three minutes, try to
play some defense and maybe they're less aggressive because of that,
and then you get the ball and then you try
to score. But like the one thing I can give
(27:52):
Maya mccarth and I've been beating him down since I
got here, but they knew how to hit those passes
on the sideline, get out of bounds, and at least
give aure a shot every time that they've had an
opportunity for the middle of eight this year, in the
past three games, they haven't been good at it. They
haven't been good at it going into the half and
getting the ball back coming out of the half. And
I would assume that has to be on shotty knowing
(28:14):
how to navigate something, because look, there's even times in
a game to where you're trying to get them to
jump and you burn a timeout. Yeah, and that timeout
could be valuable to your kickoff operation or something later
on in the game.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Go ahead, bro, were they burned a time out trying
to get them to, like you said, to jump off
sides And you're thinking, like, just just don't do that.
Either go for it or punt it. There's no in between.
There's no in between for me. If if you're going
to burn. And what's happened the last two weeks, They've
missed opportunities to have a time out left like all
(28:46):
of a sudden, Yeah, you complete the ball down the
field and then you have a time out. Well, or
you don't get out of bounce. You use the time
out right there and then be able to take another shot.
So some game management stuff has been a little bit suspect.
Going into halves of these games and then coming out
of half has been a little bit of a problem
the last three weeks. You were great in Philadelphia the
(29:08):
first half of that football game. Second half not so
good the Giants. You came out, but then you kind
of figured some things out a little bit later and
then got the win. Yesterday. Boy, that was just a
bad middle aid for you right there. That just going
in and then you giving up a touchdown out of
that made it even worse.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
All Right, We're going to take our final break. Let's
come back.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Got a few more points I want to make on
the offense, and then we'll dive into a little bit
more on the defense and some deeper conversations on the defense.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
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Speaker 4 (31:03):
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Speaker 3 (32:04):
Back to the Break.
Speaker 8 (32:10):
At and T Connecting Changes Everything.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Welcome back.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
It is the final segment of The Break Live from
the SWBC Mortgage studios. At the start, we're talking about
the Cowboys loss to Chicago thirty one to fourteen. Up
next Green Bay Packers, and you're now the team, Michael.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
We're going to get a win this week. Desperate team theory.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
All right, we're saying that on Monday. Let's go for it.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
All right, Let's talk about the defense. Caleb William yesterday.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Never beat the Packers real quick, Never beat.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
The on offense. I know we talked about the difference
of how we of course know how different it looks
when CD is not on the field.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
But what do you think and we've.
Speaker 8 (32:51):
Been talking about this offense having so many different weapons
and this and that, what do you think you would
be able to manage it and figure it out at
least in I'm not saying you can deal with going
through the whole season without a CD. But in a
game like that against an opponent like that, what do
you think you have enough guys that can do things
(33:14):
and generate what you need to generate in order to
get into the end zone.
Speaker 7 (33:19):
I could be wrong, and somebody can text me and
tell me if I'm wrong. If Pickens knew all of
the Lamb plays, then I think you would have a
better chance of like getting back Because Pickens is a
he's a great receiver or whatever. I don't think he
knows all the Lamb stuff. I think Pickens run slants,
he runs out, he runs deep. I think that's kind
(33:40):
of what he does. But if but they're talent wise
that they're up there, I just think Lamb does more
because I don't know whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Man, you're onto something, but yeah, you're onto something.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
It seemed like Turpin was doing the Lamb stuff.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah you're on something because if you watch I was
watching Pickens as that game was going on, and I
couldn't reckanize his routes. I couldn't recognize I couldn't distinguish.
You know, you're right about the outs and the slants
and stuff, but everything else, I couldn't distinguish what routes
he was running. And I wonder if all of a sudden,
you know, him having to do more, you know, affected
(34:16):
the way that he played. But I'll give credit. Turpin
battled his ass off. He really did for you know,
lam being down. He really went out there and played hard.
I think I think Tolbert, I mean, people are gonna
blame Tobert for not finishing his block and allowing Stevenson
to get behind and steal the ball away, you know,
I mean they got the ball to the edge. That's
(34:37):
just a great hustle play by Stevenson. But you could
tell that that Turpin was he was engaged and he
was trying to make something happen. And to the point
of Tolbert, there's sometimes where Tolbert just kind of fades
into the bushes during a game. I think there was
times where he was running routes and Dak just didn't
see him. Dak didn't throw him the ball, but man,
(34:57):
they needed they needed pickets. And I was really excited
coming into this game that they kind of maybe unlock
something from Pickens there, but he struggled, especially the interception
that was that was on him all the way Dak
scrambles out makes the throw off the hands Stevenson once
again right there. Got to have that ball. You got
(35:18):
to have that ball. But there was there was some
routes where I just wasn't really really sure what George
Pickens was trying to do to execute to get open.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
All right, let's talk about the defense. Caleb Williams yesterday
was nineteen of twenty eight, sixty eight percent completion, two
hundred ninety eight yards, zero sacks, four touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
First time he's ever not been sacked by.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
The one hundred and forty two point six rating. It
was a career day for him yesterday. The interesting thing
about this defense, though, is that they did play more man.
In the past two weeks they played primarily, i mean
almost exclusively zoned. Yesterday played fourteen percent man eighty six
percent zone.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
It wasn't really a better result.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
As a matter of fact, quite a few times when
they were in man coverage, they had guys that were
giving up large cushions, and then the plays were set
up to where they were basically having to carry a
guy across the field. So if you can imagine that,
so you got a ten yard cushion, this guy's going
across the field. Trying to close that distance is almost impossible.
So you're gonna basically give up a catch of six
seven eight yards at the very least, maybe more so.
(36:21):
All that being said, when you look at it from
the standpoint of what they did schematically, do you think
that this is more of what they should be doing,
playing more of that man or do you think there
are deeper problems than even just that.
Speaker 7 (36:33):
I would rather them play more man, But the cushion
doesn't make sense to me, Like if you're gonna play man, like,
don't give them ten yards.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Like list actually seven point one.
Speaker 7 (36:42):
That was the appreciation. Appreciation Like if it's third and
twenty or something like that. Yeah, you know, you can
back off a little bit, but not that much, like
walk up and actually play these guys. And I'm hoping
Flues isn't worried about giving up the big play because
you give up the big playing zone as well, so
you might as well do something. The whole idea of
zone is to keep things kind of in front of you.
You can kind of see a little bit. If they
(37:04):
getting behind you in zone anyway, just go ahead and
rust some rustle man out there. It can't be that bad.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Flu Yeah, the biggest problem is lack of pastor.
Speaker 8 (37:10):
You make it sound like so easy.
Speaker 7 (37:14):
It's not as easy as I'm making it sound. But
it shouldn't be as difficult as Flues is making it.
It shouldn't be that difficult. And I'll and I'll say that.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
And Jodd even said they might have to like kind
of scale some things back, and I was kind of like,
what it looks pretty scale now, maybe he's asking him
to do things like we're talking about, like Derek was
with DJ Moore. I looked to me like half zone,
half man. I I don't know. I mean, who's wrong?
Was the left side wrong or the right side wrong?
(37:43):
Because they were somebody's wrong, you know, and the way
they were playing it, And Hooker turns and looks inside
like wait a minute, what are we? What are we
doing here? Boys?
Speaker 5 (37:50):
But it seems like the simplest kind of coverage you
could run is man because you know, hey, that's my guy.
They with him right when you when you start playing
zone and certain when you start playing more exotic kind
of zones, especially if your guys aren't familiar with that.
The NFL boves fast. I think that's one thing that
people don't really think about. If you're not a zone defender,
you're not used to playing zone, and you're being asked
(38:11):
to do that. Now you're having to adjust on the
fly as things happen. So what they did a lot
yesterday the Bears offensively, they basically flood a zone. And
what I mean by that is basically they take if
you're playing zone, they'll basically say, okay, well, on this
side of field, we may not have a single receiver
route in coverage. I mean in a route on that
side of the field. You got three guys over there
covering those zones. Now we're going to take the other
(38:33):
side of field, where you may have the same three
or different three, but it's three people, and we'll put
four four receivers into routes and we'll just flood that
area so you can't cover everybody. If you're not a
depth at being able to play zone, then that makes
it even worse because you're like, oh my god, this
guy coming from both ways, which way do I go?
And then you know somebody's past year and here we go, right.
I think that's part of the thing here is that
(38:54):
I don't know if these players are really a depth
at recognizing what's coming at them and being able to
adapt to that and play zone in a way to
where they really can't stop the opponent.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
It's tough. I mean, yeah, yeah, you're not wrong. Can
I say the pass rust though, too? Can I throw
the pass rush in there with you know, with you know,
and or lack of you know? I mean, it's just
it's so evident that just these quarterbacks are feeling super
comfortable and Derek to your point, you know, flooding and
you're making they're making these these coaches or these coordinators
(39:30):
are making it really easy for their quarterbacks, especially with
no pressure. Then all of a sudden, you know, you've
got guys, and it's like that in that game. You know,
Caleb Williams was looking at his receiver when he was
throwing the ball every time he just kind of knew that, Okay,
this is the way the plays called. And and Derek's right, Hey,
we're gonna flood it, and we're gonna guys gonna be
(39:50):
right there, you know, just beyond the sticks. I'm gonna
throw it to him, it's gonna be a first down,
and in a way we go. But they are just
not even when trying to bring extra rushers, just not
even getting close when you when you know, listen, let
me when DeAndre Swift in the first two games Minnesota
(40:11):
de Troit, he's having trouble picking up guys, but here
you are blitzing it and you're making him look like
he's the best running back pass protector in the league.
These are these are things that you're just playing into this.
You're like, it's like the weakness of you know, you're
attacking a weakness, but they're coming away just making it
(40:32):
work because you're not good enough to take advantage of
that situation. So that's the thing to me that's disheartening.
But there to your point, you're absolutely right. I mean,
to me, they can talk about communication. Execution has been
a real problem and I and I don't know if
these guys we talk about practicing out here, do you
practice enough? You know, I had one time a guy
(40:54):
and this is during the Mike McCarthy year, a guy
got called me up on you know phone and goes, hey,
you guys practice down there? Kind of looks like your
team doesn't practice. Wow, you know, and this but this
was last year, you know, and so I just you
wonder with some of the busts that happened or some
of the miscommunications, you have to wonder did you practice?
Speaker 5 (41:13):
You know, well quick before you got I'm gonna let
you get to that point, Brian, as you were talking,
I saw this tweet that our guy Tommy Yarsh put
out about thirty seven.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
Minutes ago, he said.
Speaker 5 (41:22):
Going into Sunday's Week three game, Bears left tackle Braxton
Jones allowed twelve pressures on seventy nine pass blocking snaps
in Chicago's first two games, which led the team. Against
the Cowboys, Jones became just the fourth player in NFL
in the NFL this season to not allow a singer
single quarterback pressure.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
There you go, he had two sacks, and I get it.
Against the Lions, you're going against Aiden Hutchins and those guys. Man,
it's tough. That's tough. But you there are these two tackles. Man. Listen,
we were talking about them on talking about them on Wednesday.
You know, Hey, this is how you got to kind
of it's it's sometimes it just it's numbing when you
(42:03):
watch a game and you're going, why not, why not?
And then you watch and then you see the stats
at the end of the game and it's a loss,
and you go, oh wow, really they completed ten of
eleven balls against na Shon right and against the nickel corner.
But the other they attacked the other guy ten times
and he stopped. You know, he only give up three.
(42:24):
How about those other times? Just stay away and then
go over. We all know who Nashon right now, we
all know, we all know who he is. Nashon Wright
should have been begging to come off that field yesterday,
you know, you know the whole thing. McCloud should have
been begging to come off that field yesterday. I hate
(42:45):
when that happens. I hate when they don't take advantage
of a tackle or put pressure on that tackle, that
offensive tackle. And let me be honest, we kind of
said this felt like that the Bears offensive line was
somewhat better than what the Giants offensive line and so
that game that should have been the big red flag
right there. If you're not getting pressure on the Giants,
(43:05):
you're gonna get pressure on the Bears. That's what we
should have known better.
Speaker 8 (43:08):
Real quick help me with my memory going back to
when Mike Nolan was here and they were having all
those defensive issues and talking about, oh, well, now they
needed to start kind of quote unquote dumbing it down
just to improve the communication, and all of that. Remind
(43:30):
me in that season, did it start getting better once
they started simplifying things that it carried over the whole
year like it never improved a little bit at the end.
I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
I'll say this, this this defense. You're talking about the
Nolan defense being historically bad. I thought the Rob Ryan
defense was worse, you know, And I think the Rob
Ryan defense has got some elements to what this one has.
Where guys don't look like they're in place, they're not coordinated,
they're not coordinated, and Rob's trying to do something the
defense is like whoa wait a minute, what And then
(44:03):
Rob would throw ten guys in the field to try
and cover, you know, try and play defense, and occasionally
forget to put the eleventh guy on there.
Speaker 18 (44:10):
But this that was strategy, this this early, this early
defense has some of that Rob Ryan elements to it,
where guys are running really really wide open.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
Yeah, yeah, I don't recall that season getting you better.
I just remember thinking the whole year like how did
Mike Nolan get so bad at this? Because there was
a time Mike Nolan his defenses worked really good in.
Speaker 4 (44:32):
The NFL, and it's like, how did how did he take.
Speaker 5 (44:35):
And by the way, whatever is happening with with Eberfulus's defense,
That was a time when Eba flu was a really
good defensive coordinator. It was a really good defensive coordinator.
And and I don't know what's happened. I don't know
if it's a meshing of maybe the concepts are just
not working, maybe the players are not capable of doing it.
But but there's something going on with this defense that's
that's deeper than just misplay here, miss misplay there.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
There's something deeper here.
Speaker 5 (44:59):
I think because it is a consistent thing week after week,
play after play that they're just not in the right spot.
Speaker 8 (45:04):
Well and like all positions pretty much all over the defense.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Schottenheimer for the offense this week stuck in the mirror too.
They get it. Shottenheimer needs to look in the mirror too,
that that offense should have done better against that def fair.
Speaker 5 (45:18):
That's absolutely fair. And by the way, we know if
they're gonna win this year, it's offense gonna.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Have to play.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Unfortunately, it's gonna be put on Dak's shoulders. I'm not
I'm just saying he's one of your best players, and
it has nothing to do with how much money you paying,
but he is one of your best players, and he's
gonna have to play the next fourteen weeks like your
absolute best player. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (45:36):
I thought that was a good comparison when you when
you mentioned the the Cincinnati Bengals from last year, because
Burrow had by all accounts, in my opinion, an MVP
caliber season last year nine and that was just basically
because they had no defense. That was the basically that
was the best that they were going to be able
to do. And if he didn't have a great game,
they didn't have it. They did work a shot. And
I don't know if it's that just yet for the Cowboys,
(45:58):
but it certainly is trending that way that if Jack
Fat doesn't have a great year or great game, then
they just won't win. I appreciate you, guys, jump let
me be back tomorrow. We'll take a little deeper look
at some of the topics, some bigger topics around this team.
I want to talk a little bit tomorrow about Yeah,
we'll get some questions. I actually want to talk a
little bit about Cede Lamb and how he got hurt
yesterday and whether that's a good idea when you have
(46:19):
a player as important to your offense as CD Lamb.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
But we'll talk about that tomorrow until the TSAR Brian
Bronis ambergresty. I'm Derek Gildon has been the break Live Radio.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
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