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Cowboys This He's Talking Cowboys, springing live from the.

Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the Star in Prisco.

Jake Burger's here, plus got kidson Teddy.

And now your hosts Isaiah Standback, Patrick Walker, Josh Rodriguez, and Kyle Yeoman's.

Well, Cowboys Nation, we've gotten to the point.

We've gotten to the point where after the trade deadline, there was some hope.

We got to the three game win streak, and Dallas saw their playoff hopes start to take a little bit of.

A turn in the right direct.

Things were going well, things were happening, and then you lost to Detroit and those playoff hopes started to shrink a little bit.

Not completely dashed, but pretty dashed at that point in time.

And you needed to win your final four games, very doable, by the way, to get into the playoffs as long as.

Philly lost twice.

Well, now we've gotten to the point where it's not mathematical, but the Philadelphia Eagles magic number to win the NFC East and back to back years for the first time since two thousand and three.

In two thousand and four is now down to one.

It takes one more Philly win or one more Cowboys win in order or Cowboys loss rather in order to see the division go to Philadelphia.

So with that we welcome you into Talking Cowboys presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, live from the Star in Frisco, Texas in the SWBC studios alongside Patrick and OC Walker Josh Rodriguez, Isaiah Stanback Chrispium in the back of Kyle Yewman's Cowboys lose to the Minnesota Vikings thirty four twenty six, the final as Minnesota team that's been beat.

Battered and bruised.

But we talked about it over the course of the entire five shows last week.

This was not a team to take lightly, even if they don't have a quarterback that they feel pretty confident in.

But this is a talented team and they showed it and Dallas did not show that they are talented team.

Forever the get right game.

Cowboys are forever the get right game.

I good grief, Charlie Brown.

I'd argue we took them pretty lightly.

I'd argue that.

I'd argue now, aspects of the team, I think we took pretty lightly, mainly JJ McCarthy and no, but we did allude to the fact that if he needed a get right game, it would be against the Dallas Cowboys defense, and unfortunately that came to fruition yet again, the Dallas Cowboys defense was a get right game for one of the.

Lower tier quarterbacks in the league.

And you find yourself now in a position where you are playing for.

Pride.

I mean that that's as best as you can do because you to be a draft pick.

One percent, I believe is it's literally one percent chance to get in the playoffs.

And according to multiple sources, that is not good.

That is not chance.

Check your sources, buddy, Yeah, no.

Is the math Mathing pat mathis.

Unfortunately the math is Mathing started off well, that was fun.

You know, you got the on the first offensive drive for the Vikings.

You get the safety blitz by Dono, got his hands up in the passing lane, tip drill Quentinn Williams.

Hey, look what I found right only the second I t in Quentinn Williams career for since twenty twenty three.

That was fun.

Cowboys did something that they hadn't been doing these past few games.

On their first offensive drive.

Uh, they made it down to.

Them only they scored the football on the one yard touchdown by Javonte Williams and.

We were off.

We were like, okay, all right, you start a game.

There we go fast start Huh unfortunately no, no, yeah, fast start, slow, remainder red zone.

We failed red zone trip after red zone trip.

Even when you sniffed to the red zone you were just outside of it.

Failed that.

Yeah, Brandon Aubrey missed two field goals.

Don't care.

You know, I don't care because Brandon Aubrey has accounted for in the past two games almost fifty percent of your offense.

Yep.

Your defense over these past two games, like I said, after looking great over a three game span, including against the Chiefs and the Eagles, and you know, within four days of each other, uh, fell back apart.

And then your offense feels broken, broken.

And that I was.

I was muggling that coming into this game.

But I was like, no, no, you pickings, He'll bounce back, will get Detroit.

But maybe that was just Detroit.

Maybe that's maybe tough game.

Yeah.

Now after seeing this, now now the offense is broken, that's rough.

So your defense is yeah, so right, So your defense is playing very ungreat and not the defensive line.

Defensive line Quentinn Kenny Kenny was murdering, guys, Oh my goodness, your secondary, your linebacker corps outside of the Marvion overshown, and now your offense looks very not great.

So I sat the Kant having a bounce back game though, but.

Again, when you're when you're kicker.

Over the past two games, fifteen points in Detroit, twelve points would have.

Been what eighteen would have been?

Eighteen he made.

Those two, you still would have lost by two all things considered, So yeah, you can't be getting outscored by your kicker.

Man.

One percent was so freaking cooked.

Were talking above.

Your thoughts, I saying, just frustration, mainly frustration because at least I can speak to us in this room.

Right, we break down it, We broke down the film.

We sat here, we told you.

I think we all said that Dallas was going to win.

I felt that I felt strongly about Dallas's ability to win the game because I I knew where the dangers were, and you felt as if Dallas was going to know where the dangers were.

And that doesn't necessarily make it much easier to handle.

But you just felt I'm speaking offensively in particular right now.

I felt as if the offense would have had a better game plan.

I felt like I was encouraged on the first series when I seen Dak's first drop back and I see Jamonte Williams line up in the A gap to protect and I'm like, Oh, they're on here we go, They're on it.

And then that didn't occur.

At least I have to go back and continue watching the film.

I didn't see much more of that, and it was almost as if they went back to a game plan that wasn't created for their opponent.

You know, you know what I'm saying.

It was almost like they grabbed a game plan that was from another week.

It was like, let's run that this week, as if they didn't know the issues that were evident and being presented by their opponent.

Well, it's not like you had a mini buy to prepare.

The time was there, film was there, Like the Minnesota doesn't change week the week.

Minnesota is what they are defensively.

You know, Brian Flores is Brian Flores.

He's a great defensive coordinator.

As I said earlier in the week, and it's got to report it's easy.

On his side of the ball.

They make it really easy.

It's very difficult for you offensively, right, but you have to make some business decisions.

You're either going to squeeze your offensive line and protect the interior, or you're gonna fan out and somebody's gonna be free on the edge, right, Like it's just one of the choices.

And I just felt like Dallas was seemingly caught off guard by this scheme that has never changed.

You can go back to all his years of coaching.

It's always been the same type of defense.

So you would have thought that you would have had something better than what I told Kyle said.

They're baiting you to run slants.

Yeah, run slants.

They're daring you to keep it.

They did it early in the game, and they didn't do it the rest of the year.

Yeah, they're like, keep trying, keep trying to run slants.

We're gonna sit in a two high shell.

We talked about that.

We're gonna sit in the a gaps, six guys across the line of scrimmage.

We talked about that.

Yeah, and they're gonna sit in there on the cornerback's gonna sit on the inside shade of the shoulder of your receivers and say, I bet you can't get on the interior because we know that the open the middle of the field is vulnerable.

We talked about that, but yet we didn't see any strategy seemingly for the Dallas Cowboys to conquer that.

Early on, we saw Javonti williamstep in an eight gap.

Early on, we saw Jake Ferguson lining up detached right, but there was nothing, seemingly, nothing that was down the middle.

You knew Dak was gonna be challenged for time.

You knew that the middle of the field was going to be open.

You can't continue to beat your head against the wall with something that is not built to take to take.

On what they were presenting.

And that's just the offensive side.

Yeah.

I remember looking at Barry Church on two separate occasions and with the way that the game was going in the first quarter, telling him I said, this thing's over.

It's Dallas is about to boat race Minnesota.

Because I did.

I thought they were the better team.

I thought as long as they got off to a quick start, which I knew was gonna be tough.

I even said it on one O five three the Fan on Friday, I said, it's going to be a frustrating first half because of the way they're going to read, the defense, they're going to get going, and all of those things I thought played a factor early.

But I still thought because of the interception and the immediate touchdown to start the game seven to nothing, bank just like that, I was like, oh man, this is about to be a blowout.

I was like Dallas about to take care of business.

But they never just got grasp of it.

They never just took over because even after a stop, then they give it right, and then Minnesota goes down and scores, right.

They score with two minutes left in the first quarter, and it's seven to seven.

Okay, fine, cool, you go down, you score, you go up fourteen to seven, and then Minnesota immediately answers.

And the second time I said it to him was when.

JJ McCarthy danced into the end zone into it, and I'm like, all right, Jj, if you're Josh Allen.

You can do that.

If you're Joe Burrow, you can do that.

But you have more interceptions than you do passing touchdowns.

Why are you dancing into the end zone, and I thought that would be enough of a disrespect from a defense that has played wells since the post buy with the exception of Detroit, I thought at that point in time, I was like, they're not going to score again.

I think if I was on that defense, I would have been poed.

I would have been completely angry at what just happened.

Because you're JJ McCarthy right now.

You don't have the ability to do that yet.

You can maybe if you end up living up to the top ten hype, sure do that down the line, but right now you have eleven interceptions and nine touchdowns.

You shouldn't be doing that.

Instead of that, Dallas never actually crossed the goal line again on the offensive side, and their defense, though they tried their best on a couple of occasions, couldn't stop the passing attack and the weapons on the outside that we talked so much about last week, Jordan Addison justin Jefferson.

They shut down Jefferson.

Okay, fair, and even with that being said, he had multiple touchdown grabs that were overthrown to him and he should have had about eighty more yards.

So they did shut him.

Down on the box missed.

But oh my god, Ja McCarthy, that's true.

There were two throws that Patrick Nosey Walker could have made from that with no warm up whatsoever.

And all yeah, elbow surgery.

I don't care.

With all that being said, there were multiple opportunities for you to take charge of that football game and you didn't, and that takes That's what's more disconcerning than me is because they're trying to build this culture.

They're trying to build this team, even if it doesn't result in playoffs this year, you want them to build in the right direction toward twenty twenty six.

In twenty twenty seven.

Because you have multiple draft picks, you have a young core of guys, and you're probably gonna spend some money to either bring some guys back in free agency or go spend in free agency for the second straight offseason.

So you want to build in the right direction.

They didn't do that.

Instead, I thought they took a massive step back over these last two weeks.

They got out physicaled against Detroit.

That's gonna happen.

It's a coach Campbell led team.

Dan Campbell wants to out physical you.

That's the whole game plan.

But you got beat down and out physical by the Minnesota Vikings who were five and five and eight coming into the game.

That's unacceptable in my opinion, and that's where I'm more disappointed across the board in this football team.

I thought you had a chance to win that game.

You were the better team, and you just didn't do it.

Kyle absolutely cooked just now totally in agreement.

And it's disappointing because you got punked.

Really yeah, JJ McCarthy punked you.

That's your own chick homy.

Seriously, that should be the worst of it all.

And that's a team playing for nothing that you would argue that their fan base is like, you know what, I kind of hope we play tough and a lot.

Of this game because they were loud in the stadium and see at home the skull to the stadium.

That is so disappointing in a team versus a team that is playing for their their lives, playing for the future of the season and the team, and they have a chance in that moment to put away this game and then like but now you're looking at like the Chargers, You're like, hop, come on, man, what are we gonna It doesn't sit.

Right with me that you were out coached.

By this team.

I don't think the coaching staff helped you in many ways like Isaiah was alluding to, I don't think that the game plan was great necessarily for the Minnesota Vikings.

And a lot of the things that Isaiah brought up on Wednesday and Thursday came to fruition over this week because I mean, you saw a lot of the pressure coming up the middle, which is exactly what Isaiah was talking about, and just over and over again the things that we were alluding to.

It just seemed like the defense didn't have a good grasp on how they're going to attack you when it was clear from just us watching it.

And you know, these are professional coaches, we're talking about professional players, and my goodness, I mean you look at performances of Kenneth Murray and like, granted we saw marys Leaf out in the field, a guy that we've been wanting to see have more of an impact on defense, that didn't necessarily have a great game.

Kenneth Murray had had a really, really bad game.

Your secondary is questionable right now just across the board.

Granted they were able to shut down justin Jefferson like you said, but there were just a lot of instances where J.

J.

McCarthy wastistically down, was not that guy to get in the ball, and a better quarterback would have looked like Tom Brady against you.

It would have been really.

Put this out there, like I know, there's gonna be a lot of people that push back, said, well, Jefferson two yards receiving.

Listen, I'm saying tis particularly they held him down.

To Kyle's point, he should have had well over one hundred yards receiving.

Absolutely, there were two throws that I remember.

One of them would have been.

A touchdown, been a touchdown, and there's there might have been one more in there.

There's two touchdowns that absolutely he could have.

He could have had four receptions for one hundred yards and two touchdown.

Yeah.

I mean, it's it's exactly what you guys are saying, but specifically what Kyle is saying, and this is why it's so disconcerting and disappointing.

Also, Melvin, I know you having fun, but we still believe in Javante.

Davante did what he could.

Was great second half man.

He went out the game.

I want people to give credit a credit to Yes, he got put out the game.

Shoulder could have easily just said handle it.

No, no, no, no.

He wanted to he wanted to smoke whatever.

Hey, whatever they did to him, allow for him to come back, and today he's gonna be hurting today.

But he wanted that.

He wanted to come back in the game and play through it.

And how much did that offense stall in the second quarter when he was exactly it was not the same offense.

Yeah, But what's disconcerting and disappointing about it is which culture that's the word culture, culture, culture?

Which version are we looking at?

Okay, so you're down twenty one.

Zero against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Man to mount that comeback, that was great Injumption Cahonia's marbles.

That's all the things.

Yes, it was.

You were aggressive, you were balls to the wall.

You were just like, we're going.

To take it.

Period.

You did it four games later against Patrick Mahomes and at the time, the Kansas City Chiefs they're going to figure out a way to make the playoffs, etcetera, etcetera.

You go and you take it from Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Okay, all right, Then you go to Detroit you get out physical.

Yeah you hate that, but okay, Detroit, hell comes Minnesota.

This is the bounce back game, right, You got to get this back, right man, From the lack of physicality to being just rapidly out coached, to the lack of aggressiveness in the red zone and things like this is just like you are you waving the white flag?

Like at certain points in the game, I felt, are you settling for these field goals?

Correct me if I'm wrong, Kyle Yeomans.

We've had the conversation about you have this weapon at kicker, depend what's the danger of that is because you start to rely and you say, well, all I have to do is get.

Across the fifty.

Got three.

We've said that before, right, Stop doing that.

You need to pretend that your kicker sucks, even though he's the best kicker in the league.

Pretend he sucks because if you do that, psychologically, you're going to try to score the football on every drive, as opposed to, oh, we got across the fifty, let's pull it back a little bit and not take some shots and risks.

You're not in the position to have that kind of a of a play calling stretch.

You were in a situation where you had to run the table.

You needed a bounce back game.

You got off to a fast start.

Go at him, CDs there, George is there, Jake is there, Javonte when he was in and then he came back.

You know you had your weapons were there.

You were getting Cavante Turpin involved in offense outside of his mistake on special teams that pinned you against your own field end zone.

That was the one mistake becauther than that.

Cavante Turpin was helping you flip field position with his returns.

Why are you getting across the fifty and suddenly just taking your foot off.

Of the accelerator.

So you had credit to credit to Shaddy for absolutely saying the quiet part out loud.

Ryan floor Is out coached him yesterday.

He said it.

That other guy Kevin, Kevin O'Connell, he's a dude, man.

He took eber Fluse out back.

We said this though, right, We sent him to within an inch of is life.

I know we gotta go to break.

But like everything that we're talking about right now, the reason why we're disappointed, and I talked to my wife about this all the time, Like the word disappointed could only come about when you have expectations that are unmat Yeah.

Yeah, Like I can only be disappointed if I have an expectation that you don't meet.

So the things we're talking about, we sat here and said, I le I know, I sat here and said, this is the third most talented team that you were going to face all season a long, that you've had faced all season long.

Right, their coaching staff on both sides is absolutely amazing.

Off as a coordinator, you know, Kevin o'cn to get.

That thing right.

Listen, it's gonna be good there.

And we said, if McCarthy wakes up and on that game day and decides that he's going to have a good day, you're in a world of trouble.

And he had an okay game and you were in a world of trouble.

Yeah, he had an okay game.

Can he missed some throws and you still lost?

And like that's why I'm disappointed, because they didn't present anything that you didn't expect.

Yeah, I thought this whole game plan was tabbed from the beginning from people outside the building.

Why was it not tabbed from people inside the building.

Again, you also think about it too.

We talked about it early in the season Week three against the Chicago Bears.

You've got Maddi Riflus, who, of course was a head coach in the NFC North and has familiarity.

That should be to his benefit, that should be to his ability to game plan around these teams.

But now you've faced all four NFC North teams.

You went three to one.

Against those teams, and it's not good.

And it hasn't been good.

You got blown out by the Bears, you got blown out by the Lions, you got handled by the Vikings, and you tied the Packers and you still gave up forty points on the guy that was supposed to know what to do on that team.

So lots of things to break down.

I want to go, Josh, I'll let you choose offense defense.

When we come back.

Let's go offense.

Let's go offense.

Let's stick on the offensive side of the ball when we come back.

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Hope you did it yesterday, Can do it again this Sunday, and then again on Christmas.

I don't know if they're open Christmas.

We'll see, but might ask, Yeah, we will be working, we'll be open.

That's something to do that day.

Man, that game, that's a different conversation.

But when the NFL scheduled that game for Christmas, you guarantee, Oh, Cowboys got a new head coach, they got some talent in town.

George Pickens is probably going to be pretty good this year.

Maybe they'll be contending for the division.

Washington's coming off of an NFC title game appearance last year, this is going to be a juggernaut matchup.

At one o'clock on Christmas.

It's just and then now you're like, oh, both teams have been eliminated from playoff contention possibly and it's Christmas and everybody at FedEx, all right, Let's talk about the offense.

When you look at the way that it is stalled on multiple occasions these last couple of weeks, especially against Detroit, especially against the Vikings, Josh, where is your number one area of concern for the offense?

Off tackle?

Just offensive tackle in general?

To me, the production is just not there for Dak Prescott right now.

He doesn't have enough time And I mean looking even at his passer rating he had.

He didn't throw first touchdown yesterday, which is a rare site for Dak Prescott, but eighty four eighty four point eight percent of passer rating.

It's just not great for Dak to not have that much time.

And granted we were talking about the pressure that was coming up the middle, but the tackles weren't helping him either.

I mean, of course Nate Thomas goes out, I believe that was a second half right when he.

Goes out, Yeah, it was second d and then it came with energy came in and he's strung, got a holding call.

Yeah, it wasn't great, But you just don't see the offensive line clicking on any sort of chemistry at all.

I mean, the one thing that they had going for was the running game, which coaching decided to back off of in the second half when Javonte Williams was looking like a beast out there after coming back from the injury, and then between the twenties, it's like, all right, let's believe in Javante, but not when we get back into the red zone.

I mean, but you showed that in the first quarter.

Like the first quarter, you saw that you could just run five times in a row, you're going to get that touchdowns.

I mean, to me, it's just a lack of belief in what the running game can do.

But overall, I just think the chemistries is not there right now, and I don't know how that works when you have Cede Lamb and George Pickens out there.

Jack ferguson, my gosh, I mean, just overall, what a terrible game for the offense.

And blind Brian Flores is a big part to do with that because they he was out coached Sturmer was yesterday.

I mean, I think you're set at wide receiver, especially if you keep Pickings around.

And you know how I feel about Flinoy as your WR three.

You liked a little bit, okay, a little bit, a little bit freaking player.

He was doing things yesterday for.

He was I really loved the potential on Brevin span Ford also shouts out to Brevan span Ford early in that game.

There's a particular team, there's a particular block that Brevin span Ford did to clear a lane for Javonte Williams.

That was special stuff, is what that was?

Yeah, solid, Yeah.

Jake ferguson the way he battled through that calf injury to make some plays for schoons by school schooon with.

The one hand.

Oh okay, hey, more of that police.

Shout out to the schoon Like seriously, I've been you guys know I'm a straight shooter.

I've been tough on school.

Yeah I was.

I was not like we all have been tough on school.

And I respect the heck out of him because he's put the work in and you can see it.

Like his blocking game.

We talked blocking game is taking his huge blocker game, and it's more so.

It wasn't always.

It was never a physical ability.

He's a physical specimen.

Yeah, that's what he was out of Michigan wimination.

It was a willing determination and he has flipped the switch in terms of like willingness to block, and then you've seen what he can do yesterday with the ability to catch.

Well, I think he's going to be a solid tight end that.

I think there was more confidence in his game this yes, that he didn't have in years, pretty sure, And I don't know if the McCarthy era of coaching necessarily set him up for that.

I feel like now he has more of a say in his role in the offense, and at least for me.

Yesterday you saw that glimpse that catch.

In the shaking Baker looked a little bit like a moves trying to you know, you know, but he was out there doing it.

So shouts out to keep that going school and love to see it.

But just by the process of elimination, position to position, running back, keep Javonte Malie Davis is showing some good things.

Still want to see what you can have from Jaden Blue.

I need to see Phil MafA.

Maybe add another one late round undrafted, you know, in April at that position, see how it goes.

But process of elimination, I land right where Josh lands.

Your offensive interior Tyler Smith is Tyler Smith, I like Cooper BB.

Tyler Booker is an animal.

Were the weak spots left tackle, right tackle?

Tyler Gouydon availability, I said this availability.

I don't doubt his potential.

The availability makes me nervous.

He has to stay on the field for long stretches of time, which is fair.

Right, he wasn't available.

Nate Thomas goes in.

I have concerns about Nate Thomas and then he gets injured.

Now you have a chemodenergy, so you have it looks like you have a death issue on top of trying to figure out your tackle left and right side right.

So yeah, for me is tackle like you gotta you gotta figure that out.

And I hate that we might need to go into the draft yet again with another offensive lineman in the first round.

Gran did you have two?

She got two?

Piece?

You have two picks?

At least you can address the defense in some capacity, sure, but I hate that you've invested so much in the offensive line and here we are yet again needing to probably address it again real quickly.

The one thing there, too, is in the past.

If you look at the track record for the Cowboys in you could say first or day one, but you could also say day two and day three as well.

But when they've been pigeonholed into a position of need is when they've missed on their draft picks.

Defensive tackle Mazzie Smith.

There's one check the second round picks where they've had to spin them on tight end and Luke Schoomaker, I hate calling him a miss, but has he lived up to the second round.

That's the one thing that's knocking right now is that if Schoomaker was a fourth or fifth round pick, and you're like, oh, dude, this guy's a steal.

This is awesome, But it was a second round pick.

Same thing with Sam Williams, Same thing with a couple of those other guys where they've been pigeonholed into taking a guy at a certain spot.

So even though you do have two first round picks, and you just went through the math, you don't need a quarterback.

You don't need a running back, you don't need a tight end, you don't need interior offensive lineman.

You probably don't need a wide receiver.

As long as you bring back George Pickens on offense, where are you gonna spend your pick.

You're gonna spend it in one spot, and it would be offensive tackle.

The one place you're not pigeonholed is left or right.

You can go draft either one of those, because if you want to move on from Terrence Steele, you can put Tyler guid in the right back and right tackle and draft the left tackle, or you could keep Tyler gutting the left tackle, go draft a right tackle.

You're not pigeonholed there.

But it's getting to the point where you are set in certain positions, and I'm worried that when we get to draft day, they won't go best player available with those two first round picks.

Instead, they're going to try and fill their voids that they have on the roster.

At the moment, Where are you guys most disappointed position group wise on this team?

Would it be the linebacker, Would it be yes defensive backs, or would it be the offense as a line this season?

Mine would be the linebackers because.

I was I was appointed, Yeah, because I had expectations going in to the year and even saw some things early where I felt where I felt like this linebacking crew would be fine as to what they were.

I really liked the group that they brought in.

I liked the moves that they made, and now I don't.

Yeah, I don't like the moves.

I don't think there's a future there, and I don't think there's there's a lot that you can do in one I mean, you can revamp the whole thing in one offseason, but it's not going to just be one move to fix it all.

You're gonna have to upend the room.

Well, what also is concerning there is and I agree it is linebackers.

But I think it's both a personnel issue the acquisition of like Kenneth Murray in the offseason at the trade downline with Logan Wilson, you're not utilizing him, and then you utilize him.

You know, he didn't look great.

Maybe you get them more rips and he could look better.

But that goes to the thing I'm about to say.

You have to look at the coordinator and the position coach as well.

Those two things cannot be divorced in this conversation.

When you talk about culture and shot, he says a lot.

When you know it's a team of competition, competition, competition, Well, when you see Kenneth Murray time and again struggling the way he has been struggling, why it takes so long to you know, decide, well, okay, well we're gonna go with Logan Wilson.

Okay, Well, even before the Logan Wilson trade him, before Tomarrey on Overshown was available, still didn't necessarily see that competition thing come to fruition at the linebacker position because you had Jack Sanborne who was struggling, right, So it's like there's certain positions where that was true more so on defense than on the offensive side of the ball.

So for me, you know, we can talk about the struggles of Kenneth Murray and we talk about the struggles of Jack Sanborne when he was healthy.

Yeah you can.

You can do all of those things, but make sure when you're having that conversation that you also talk.

About how important it is to.

Understand when it's time to adapt and adjust and look at a guy and say, you know what, I know.

I brought you in as my guy, but look.

Here, my guy.

All right, but look here, my guy.

It's not working out right now.

So let's move on to something else.

And you just you didn't see that often enough or early enough for the Cowboys.

I want to hear Josh's answer in Isaiah's answer to that question on the other side of the break as we flipped it to the defensive side of the ball in the thirty four to twenty six loss to Minnesota.

Plus that stat I gave you earlier three and one this year against the NFC North, I got a little something extra to spring on top of that.

Let's talk about that stats at all, And it may not be when we come back right after this with more talking Cowboys sprinkles.

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Even after a thirty four loss, brother, yeah.

Uh, three and one against the NFC North.

Would you like to hear how many points we've allowed in each of those games, which in GB it's not good.

So forty points of course against the Green Bay Packers.

They also gave a thirty one against the Bears.

You gave up a whopping forty four against the Detroit Lions, and then thirty four against the Minnesota Vikings.

I'm not grit at now, can you add that up?

I not that quick, but it's not a lot.

Get you a nun all right?

It is a lot.

I mean that's a lot of points allowed by a defensive coordinator that seemingly should know.

That seems very division.

Yeah, it's not.

I don't like those works.

I read those numbers again.

Please, I don't like this.

I don't need our scores just there's though.

Yeah, So forty hu thirty one, forty four thirty four that is a whopping.

Divided by four.

Yeah, that's what I just did.

It's like, did you like to be close seven point twenty five?

I was close?

Thirty seven I was.

That's a thirty seven point average.

Against that division.

It's a tough division, it's a good division.

So you would have to score more than thirty seven in each of those games.

That's to have a shot on average one.

Yes, that's a good reason, all right, even for this offense.

Man Isaiah asked the question, what part of this team are you disappointed?

Have you been most disappointed in your expectations to start the year, Josh, I want to hear your answer.

Well, according to your definition of disappointment, yes, there has to be an expectation.

Correct, you have for that position?

Right?

I liked what you guys said about linebackers.

Obviously that's a very disappointing aspect of the team, but as far as my expectations go and how they performed, it has to be offensive line.

The chemistry has just not been there consistently enough throughout the season.

Even when you did have Tyler Gotton in there, there were games where he got beat and quite often.

It's not a perfect fix.

It's not like the Eagles missing Lane Johnson.

It has just been inconsistent from beginning to end this entire season.

For me, that is something that, like I said, it's frustrating that yet again another offseason where you feel like you need to address offensive line when you've had so much stock and value put into that already and now needing to address it again.

It's just it's disheartening.

It's a hard decision for me between offensive line and defensive backs.

Linebackers would come in third for me because I didn't have high expectations of that group.

See I felt that way about the back They're the defensive backs, well.

At least your highest paid defensive players on the field, right.

I didn't have high expectations of him, though.

I say offensive line for the same reasons that he's been healthy.

Yeah, he's been healthy.

I'll say the offensive line for the same reasons that you did.

Coming into the season, you felt pretty dog unconfident about that unit.

Especially as an improvement over the season.

Prom Absolutely, you understood that Tyler guydon needed it that year, right, and you're trying to give him opportunity to have some growth underneath him, and you're anticipating him coming in and being.

A solid left tackle for you.

You anticipated Terrence still continue to be Terrence still, you know, I mean not necessarily.

It as like being crazy amazing, you know, but somebody who's who's a solid right tax solid, that's what I considered him to be, has grit, has you know you can get after it, and he's going to keep your quarterback clean and then your your two guards.

You know what you're going to get out of.

At least you knew what you're gonna get out of t Smith right.

Booker has been a great, a great addition.

I've always had my concerns about Bebe.

I like him as a person, I like him as a player, but I don't think he's a dominant center.

I just don't.

I think he's I think he's outmatched when you face some of these more you know, dominant interior defensive lineman.

I just think that he is so.

I think that's an aspect of his game that he has to continue to develop.

The defensive back room.

Reason why I argue that point is because you expected Duran Bland to play better than what he's playing.

You expected Trayvon Diggs to at least be present, even though there's questions I at least personally had questions revolving around Yeah, I'll just say I had questions revolving around Trayvon Diggs.

With the expectation that he was going to be on this team.

App here is going to be on the field.

Yes, he's been.

He's been available since his contract extension for thirty percent thirty percent of the games ninety seven million dollar contract.

I don't count people's money as public ninety seven million dollars and you and I said this on CBS the pregame Show yesterday.

It's frustrating from a former player's perspective.

I never got to see that kind of money.

I never even sniffed that money.

However, that is what you fear as a player when guys get their big contracts.

It gives players a bad rap, It gives owners hesitation.

This is the example.

This is literally why owners are hesitant to give players money.

And I hate to say that, but it's the truth.

This type of availability, this type of leadership, this type of approach.

To the game, just from what I see, don't know just what I see.

Your perspective, my perspective from my little eyes at wander at training camp and wander around the building and wander on the dot com dot com.

It's disheartening, man, it's really disheartening.

I expected more out of that unit.

I was still questioning, who's going to be the third guy.

You have a veteran safety unit that far underperformed.

Yes, they were being put into positions that weren't necessarily their strong suits, but they're still veterans safeties.

You expected them to adapt.

So I am torn between the O line and the secondary.

I was to have to lean more towards OOR line because I think that that was the more solid unit.

But you're coming into the season, you felt like you had two solid corners you do and you felt like you had two safeties that were veterans that can do whatever was going to be going to be asked of them, of their new defensive coordinator.

Neither unit has been.

Great, and I know and I just saw it in the comments.

Someone it's like, well, you know, you could have just paid Micah.

We're not going down that road because if you want to go down there, right, and you still like I will say, if you want to go down that road, then to Isaiah's point about the defensive backs, then I'm going don't get mad at me when I remind.

You that you should have kept Jordan Lewis.

Yep.

Not only was he one of your best corners and one of the best corners in the league.

Leader, he was the tone set.

He was the vocal leader in that room.

You removed that.

And Deron Bland is not the vocal leader.

That's not his bag.

That's not what he does.

Trayvon Diggs is not a vocal leader.

That's not what he does.

And then, of course you now see how things have devolved between the Trayvon Diggs in the organization.

Going back to the whole you know the contract clause situation, right, it's not been right since then.

It got worse when they traded Michaelway.

You had all of this going on in the defensive backs room, and you took the most the stabilizing force the vocal leader, the physical tone setter, the locker room guy, Gimbo, and you said we're not We're not going to pay you.

Bad decision.

So all I'm saying is that absolutely plays into one of the biggest reasons this defensive backs room has taken a hugh step back the other one.

In my opinion, and I'm on the record of saying this, so I'll say it again.

You should have kept el Harrison the building, point blank period.

I'm not coming off that hill.

Those two things.

Yes, those two guys walking out of this building set you back monumentally in the defensive back qul.

I agree the other thing about the corners in the defensive backs as well, And this is part of the argument that we had going into the trade deadline.

Do you want an ed rusher?

Do you want a defensive tackle?

The moves that they've made to this point, adding Quinn Williams, adding kenn and Clark have done exactly what they set out to do, stop the run and be dominant at the line of scrimmage.

They have done that.

Even yesterday in a loss, they allowed just seventy seven yards rushing thirty four yards on twelve carries for Aaron Jones who's traditionally run all over you.

So you have improved and become a solid run defense.

And even last week against Detroit they went over one hundred yards as a group, but it wasn't just one unit that was taking care of business.

One thing that I will say is when you have sold out to stop the run, the way that this front office has and the way that this team has, it's going to leave you vulnerable in the secondary.

And the lack of pass rush.

I think the pass rush initially last year hit a lot of the problems in the secondary.

I think it hit a lot of the inconsistencies, hit a lot of the discrepancies from your defensive backs.

And now you're starting to see it hit the limelight because you're not getting the pressure that you normally would on the inside and with that pass rush.

So I think a lot of it does go together and the secondaries having to adjust because they have more time to cover and thus they're getting beat But then there are certain plays where you and I have talked about it in the booth last night, where Doron Bland is getting beat off the line of scrimmage, Kaylin Carson is getting beat off the lot off the line of scrimmage multiple times where you could win your battle immediately.

That's not on the pass rush, but there are other ways that the past rush has affected things.

So I said this real quick, real quick, before you said.

Someone asked how Jodan Lewis is doing in Jacksonville.

I don't know if you're being for sious or not, but let me tell you join Lewis has allowed just four point seven yards per target and coverage the season, the second fewest amongst slot cornerbacks with at least twenty targets.

He is still one of the best corners in the league, and he's on pace to best his interception career interception talley, which was three.

He has two, and he still has several more games to go.

He was never respected here, so that answers that question.

Jodan Lewis is actually doing very well.

They didn't value him the way that everybody else got.

What were you gonna say on that?

No, I was just gonna say dern By on things I let Josh.

I'm pretty sure when he cuts the film on he's self evaluating self, checking himself.

I think he expects more of himself as well.

So we're not saying anything that he's not going to hold a standard that he's not going to hold himself to.

I believe he is of the character that is going to figure it out, it's throughout the remainder of the season or whether it's during the off season.

I think he will take accountability for his lack of execution and lack of performance because we expect more, because we've seen more.

And I think that he probably feels that same way about himself.

I don't have issues about him bouncing back.

It is what it is right now.

I see it being better in the future.

But in terms of right now what we're seeing, he's not handling it as one on ones.

He is CB one right now.

He's CB one right now.

Yeah, and we're not seeing it.

I think what you're saying about stopping the run and the defensive line, to me, that should only make your secondary better.

And you saw that when Quentin Williams first came to the Cowboys.

You saw that for the first time.

Oh he's getting pressure.

He's getting pressure.

Kenny Clark's looking great, and Os is looking great.

To me, the real reason why you're getting killed in the secondary scheme and to me.

That's a problem that you really need to address.

It's batter that's gonna do it for us here on Talking Cowboys.

Appreciate you following up on a on a loss and on a Monday where I know a lot of Cowboys fans are frustrated, but we're here for you.

We are here to talk about it.

We're gonna be back tomorrow, and if you want to voice some of your opinions and voice some of your frustrations in a clean, family friendly environment, please do so tomorrow on Talking Tuesday eight eight eight eight five five.

We're doing charity.

Oh dang, you are doing charity work.

We're giving back to the community.

So yeah, for your thoughts, guys.

Yeah, you're not calling at all this week because we've got to go serve.

The community Salvation Army tomorrow.

Sorry guys, didn't mean to do that.

Yeah, no podcast tomorrow.

We will be back on Wednesday, maybe just to make up for it.

I'll take a couple of calls that day too, just to make sure we get a couple of those calls in.

But we'll be back on Wednesday, nine am to break it all down for you here on Talking Cowboys.

For Patrick Nosey Walker, Josh Rodriguez, Isaiah standback, Chris being in the back.

I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long from Talking Cowboys.

We'll see you tomorrow Cowboys Nation, No Wednesday Cowboys Nation.

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