LIVE: Cowboys Break Podcast | 9-09-25 | Dallas Cowboys 2025

LIVE: Cowboys Break Podcast | 9-09-25 | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Go Cowboys. Go Cowboys. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Go cowboys. Go Cowboys. Heat. Heat. Go kill boys. Go Cowboys. Heat. Heat. Go Cowboys. Go Cowboys. The following is a production of DallasCowboys.com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. Let’s go, brother. Are you ready for a break? Yes. Are you ready for a break? Absolutely. Ready for a break? Yeah. And um so much for that. It’s time for the break on dallascowboys.com. We were on the break with Ambar Garcia, Brian Brous, Vach Lombardi, and Derek Eagleton. Hello guys, welcome back to another episode of the break here in SWBC mortgage studio. We are here live by uh presented by LG. I always have to look at all these sponsors that we got going on here. But we got Vot and Brian brought us in today’s show. Derek will be back later in the week. And for today, I have a bunch of just random big picture type of questions. So, I thought we’ll just have some fun in today’s showy showy showy. No weird noises happening on the show today. Amber, you say you got questions. You said well what you got for us? We’re going to keep it clean today or try to was clean yesterday. Boy, you say you got questions today though is what you said. Boy, what you got for us today? All right. So, we’re gonna go all over the place a little bit in today’s show. So, let’s start off right off. I’m trying to win awards here. What are you guys doing? Yeah. Sound effects. I’m ruining it for I’m ruining it. If you guys don’t know what we’re talking about, make sure to check out yesterday’s show. Watch all the shows is what she means. Don’t just watch Check out yesterday’s show. Watch everything, please. I believe it was segment two. But anyways, all right. After one game, are you guys more confident or concerned about Brian Shottenheimimer’s uh play calling? Looking in long term, where are you feeling uh of as far as his play caller duties go? I feel good. I feel good. Um I feel like we’ve been uh sold a ton of false goods over the years. Uh whether it be, hey, I’m going to get this player going or hey, wide receiver one gets his, but you don’t find a way to get wide receiver two going. Then uh there’s evidence that the best teams in the league run shifts and motions. You know, once upon a time we didn’t run shifts and motions. And some coaches say, “Hey, we’re going to try our best to get more shifts and motions involved.” And they didn’t. Uh Shotti, what he did since week one is say, “Hey, man, we are not going to be static.” Cowboys ain’t static. Cowboys are not static at all. And you see the personnel moves and the shifts and all those things. And it just seems like the Cowboys are are not overthinking things that they just want to do things simply, but they want to do things that work. Uh, if you ask some of the past administrations about running the ball, like, hey, can we run the ball better? The past administration wouldn’t always have answers for you. Shotty says, look, we gonna run it. Don’t worry about it. And sure enough, Javvonte Williams is running the dog on football. So, I don’t have any doubts about what Shotti is doing. If if there’s any criticism and not even criticism, and Brian can cosign this, just get Piggin involved, too. Now, now maybe it’s a gametoame thing and the Eagles did a really good job of taking Pickers out of the game, but uh if you got Lamb on the other side, then there should be somewhere for Pickers to get involved. It could be a bubble, it could be something short. Just get him going. And you know, besides that, I think the Cowboys are doing fine on offense. Love the first half offense. Really did. Love the motions. Love the play calling. Love the way that he and the quarterback were on the same page. Love the way that the the the the running back ran with some toughness, you know, love the way the offensive line was blocking up front. That’s, you know, your play callers getting guys in position to make plays. And I I really did for a half there. I really liked what I saw. And then it felt like though after the weather break that it wasn’t there. It they they weren’t able to get back and get that. And you can say, well, the Eagles had the same problems. I think Dallas did a great job on defense adjusting and helping themselves to play against the Eagles in the second half. I thought they did a great job of coverage. Thought they did a much better job of gap control, you know, staying in their lanes, all those things that they needed to do. You know, that zone coverage gave that quarterback a lot of problems. But where I’m looking now at Shenheimer is Vash is right. You’ve got to find a way if he’s going to tell me in the in the post game and then the weekly press conference there was cloud coverage and all that. Coach, come on now. Been in the league 25 years. Find a way to get him out of cloud coverage. Find a way to kind of get your guys moving. Just not about Turpin moving. Get get everybody moving. Get make them have to chase. Make them have to be able to uh you know if if you’re moving CD Lamb, if you’re moving Ferguson, if you’re moving just move guys. The last play they tried to run was a really good call. Just wasn’t well executed. The fourth and two the pick. They didn’t get enough rub on Mitchell. You know, to me, I’m finding a way to set that thing up where I’m attacking the weak link over there. I’m finding a way I’m not attacking Mitchell. Mitchell made a hell of a play to get that to get through that that pick or that rub to get the C to get the CD and it kept CD. He got enough of him not to be able to get the football. That’s the only criticism I have. I I just felt like that, man, if you’re gonna have that call sheet, go to it and and and circle the ones that are working for you, stay with it, run and pass. Also too, Brian, I think that something that Shotti did really well in week one that I just want him to keep doing moving forward. I think Dak is a good enough quarterback. He’s a veteran enough quarterback. Just don’t get in his way. Uh I didn’t want to say names at first, but we’ll say it. He don’t work here no more. Mike McCarthy used to do a lot to get in Dak Prescott’s way. And I think some of these OC’s of the past when they have really good quarterbacks, you know, Shawn Peyton, Tom Moore, McDaniel, they didn’t get in the way of their top tier quarterbacks, right? Don’t don’t you know this running up field and and turn it around. I I say it as a joke all the time, Brian, but you can’t lead the league in curls, hitches, and slants. There’s no way you can you can you can think Dak can pull you out of that out of that much of a hole. Get these guys on the move. How about some easy buttons? How about getting Turpin in an open space where Dak can just dump the ball off and then we get Yak yards, right? Shotty really didn’t do anything to hold Dak back as some of these old coaches used to. As long as you just keep operating through four and just putting him in good spots, I think you’ll be fine as an offense. So, we know this is the first year of him acting as a play caller because last year Mike McCarthy, he was the one calling the plays. Uh but looking at him being the first time head coach and serving as the play caller here, how do you define a successful season for this version of the Dallas Cowboys? Well, unfortunately for Shotti, you know, if Ben Johnson and the Bears win eight games, they’re going to throw a party over there. Unfortunately with the Cowboys, you just can’t show up and win eight games here and go, “Where’s my party?” There’s, you know, we’re looking at you in a in a different lens here. So, Shotty has to win. And I think Shotty will win. just don’t get in in For’s way. And I think that’s your success. And it’s unfair for real, but you the head coach of the Cowboys, you the you’re the play caller for the for the Cowboys, right? So now we have to ask our ask our ourselves like what’s best for the Cowboys. Is it best for Dak Prescott to go out and throw for 5,000 yards in a season? It looks cool, you know, being the number one offense and all this kind of stuff, but we’ve gone through that to where the Cowboys have had the number one in all these metrics, touchdowns, passing yards, and all this stuff. It didn’t mean anything. I think we would all be h if Dak threw for 4,000 yards but you won a championship at the end. We’ll live with that. Or how about if you’re Shottenheimer and you call good def good good u call good offense but doesn’t get in the way of your defense and you win defensively. I think that’s another way that you could just get get credit for it, right? So ju just don’t overthink this thing, right? Just don’t put yourself in compromised position. The Cowboys were so and I’m raising my voice. Pardon me. Y’all remember when Kell Moore was was uh calling plays and the the the talking point was maybe Kell scoring too fast. You remember that? Yeah. Oh, we putting too many points on the board. The defense tied. I’m like, man, that’s nonsense. That’s narrative, right? Like, just play good team ball score and make stops and we’ll be good. I thought Dallas was the third best uh team in this uh in this division and going in. And uh I think this is a situation right now if you want the week one knee-jerk reaction. This division’s up for grabs. And we we’ll see what happens with the Giants. But I feel like the Commanders, the Eagles, and the Cowboys. I didn’t believe the Cowboys were this good. And I mean this good in the way that they, you know, they quickly got some things together with this offensive line. I wasn’t sure about the left tackle. You know, we were we’re looking at the we’re looking at the right guard as a rookie. He kind of felt like that he was going to maybe have some growing pains, but it looks like to me this offensive line is can can handle a lot of things up front. I wasn’t so sure about the running game with, you know, with Williams and then, you know, we’ll see. You really didn’t get pickings going. We’ve talked about all that, but this offense is probably going to be your calling card. And if the defense is playing at a level where all of a sudden it’s you’re getting quality play from your defensive tackle spot and you’re finding ways to get some pressures with these edges without Micah Parsons, you know, this defense will be a lot better. The secondary I think was fine in the game the other day. The linebackers got to figure this thing out. But I kind of feel like Dallas the third best team now just one week in. Maybe this division really is up for grabs and maybe it is going to be, you know, maybe it’s going to be 10 or 11 wins to have to do that. kind of felt like this was a nine- win team, but they showed me something. I don’t know if Dallas is this or has gotten better or Philadelphia has regressed to the field. You know, that’s where you got to kind of figure some things out. Is is the Super Bowl hangover for real? And is this division really for is it really wide open? That that’s that’s going forward. Brus Garcia, um I don’t want to play the ifs game, right? Because ifs don’t count, right? But if you spy Jaylen Herz and CD catches passes that he normally catches, you blow out the Eagles. Yeah. In real life, you really do. Let’s just be fair. Dak has some 350 some odd yard game. Jaylen Hurst’s top two wide receivers get what 12 yards all together combined. You blow the Eagles out in real life. In real life at their house in the rain. You look at this team totally different. Right now, of course, it didn’t happen. And we don’t lean into ifs, but these are some ifs that you can easily fix them ifs. Like CD Lamb already working on the Jugs. You can call Floose on your phone. He might not answer, but you can at least like, “Hey man, can we at least consider this? There’s a bunch of running quarterbacks moving forward. Can we at least consider this?” I think the Cowboys are talented enough to do it. And I don’t And look, just me looking around social media and national TV coverage, I don’t like all this new energy like Dak Prescott is a new really good quarterback. Dak been good for a while. Dak been a top quarterback for a while. He’s been hurt guy. He he he may not be playoff win guy, but he’s been a good quarterback for a long time. Let’s let’s let’s get more of that in the conversation. Brian bro, I think the Cowboys, just like you said, it’s up for grabs, Brian. The Eagles the Eagles look a little weird. And honestly, the Washington Football Wizards, I don’t call them commanders. It’s a weird name. The the Washington Football Wizards, the the damn score was 14 to7 going into the fourth quarter versus the Giants, who ain’t good. I already watched the film versus It ain’t good. I think I wouldn’t be shocked if the if the Cowboys at the end of the year won the division, Brian. Oh, no. That’s I I I felt like, you know, Philadelphia and the Commanders, I I was kind of leaning either way, but this this division just through week one looks like it is going to be, like I said, maybe a 10, 11 win team is going to win it. And it’s I I think all the teams in it are going to have to deal with the schedules, but but Dallas to me, at least through week one, looks like that they’re they’re equipped. We’ve mentioned this inside with the offensive line. I think this team is going to be as good as its lines, its offense and its defensive lines. If those two things show up, this team could be very, very hard to beat. Well, it needs to happen now in the next few weeks because we know like later in the half of the season, that second half. Yeah. to start. There are some tough teams that you’re gonna have to compete against. You’re gonna have to face the Eagles again, which I think you very much can beat them just like you mentioned. But looking into next week specifically, what needs to change heading into week two against the Giants and we’ll do the full breakdown tomorrow. But if you have to give me one big fix, what would that be? Take that same energy that you had with Saquon Barkley and Jaylen Herz and just go, “That’s Tyrone Tracy and Russell Wilson.” Yeah, you’ll be fine. Just don’t get bigheaded about it. Don’t go, “Oh, we just got into this heavyweight fight with the Eagles. Oh, don’t underestimate the Giants.” And they’re pros. I’m I’m sure they won’t. They have a lot of confidence against the Giants. I don’t think Dax lost to the Giants as his rookie year, but but but keep that edge. Like the Cowboys walked into the Eagles game with a certain edge. I want them to just keep that edge against teams that they that they that they should beat, right? And just remember that there Tyrone Tracy and Russell Wilson over there as opposed to the Pro Bowlers you just lined up against last week. Yeah, I think what they have to do is I think I’m going to look on the offensive line side of things here. I think they did a pretty good job of handling the pressure that Philadelphia was trying to rush for and then had to bring secondary pressure and linebacker pressure and things like that. So to me, it’s going to be about how do you manage this as we look into the New York Giants? We the one thing that we think is an actual strength of theirs is their defensive line, whether it’s the tackle play or the edge play. You know, we we’re going to have to see the Dallas Cowboys play at a very very high level. You you can’t give up a bunch of cheap pressures. You can’t give up, you know, with the twist games and stuff like that up front. You got to be able to be sound and and and ready to go because people are going to try and do things now to affect you. If you show that you can’t block certain ways or certain fronts, you’re going to get that every week, though. So, right now, you need to draw the line in the sand and say, “Okay, we’re gonna handle anything that the Giants throw at us pressure-wise.” Let’s go ahead and take our first break. When we come back, we’ll dive into some more big picture questions for these guys. AT&T has a new guarantee because most things in life are not guaranteed, like getting through selfch checkckout by yourself. Warning. Each item must be placed in the bagging area. Not guaranteed. Place item in the bagging area. Place item in the bagging area. 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And remember, at Take Five, you stay in your car because they’re faster than you think. That means you won’t even have time to show off your best touchdown celebration. Take Five, the official oil change of the Dallas Cowboys. Back to the break. Choose perfection. Choose LG OLED Evo. Check out the best TV in the game at lg.com. Welcome back to the second segment of the break presented by blockchain.com. Ding ding. Come on, Paul. Paul, come on. Chris is not back there. Um, okay. So, next question for you guys. What’s one area of the team you feel way more confident now than you did before the season started? Granted, we’ve only seen one game, but has anyone changed your mind or anything in the games specifically that made you change your mind about something that you were initially very concerned about? Man, Brian Broers, it is something else how one player can just shift how you look at a position. Oh, I know where you’re going here, boss. like how just one dude shuffle everybody else around and now we could walk into a game with a big smile on our face. Boy, DTackle was a problem. There you go. DTackle was a humongous problem. And you know, just think about it. And shouts out to Solomon Thomas. But when Solomon first signed to the Cowboys, I thought he was going to be a backup to OSA because he’s been BAP guy. Turns out he just happened to be your best one in in camp, right? And that was befuddling, right? Solomon’s like 305 or something like how is he the best one tech in camp? It doesn’t make sense. And now everybody else kind of gets bumped up because that’s just where your room is talent-wise, right? Kenny Clark gets here and we broke down some film this morning on our podcast. Brian Bra saying Kenny Clark plays A gap. Now Solomon get to go back to B gap and sometimes he goes C gap. Play the edge at five sometimes. Brian. So now we’re walking into this tackle uh this um tackle room with like not an embarrassment of riches, but it’s like boy like who we going to line up with this week? Who’s the fourth, the fifth guy? We went from boy, I got faith in OSA and that’s it to who’s the fifth guy, Brian. That’s kind of where we are. Uh Perion Winfrey uh just went on the IR uh yesterday. So that’s unfortunate for him. Shouts out to him. Hope, you know, hope he feels better recovering his back and all that. Uh but man, Osa, Kenny Clark, Solomon Thomas gets to move around, but still mostly BGAP guy. You have a lot of confidence in this D tackle room. And think about Tollia as well. If JT J2il was a guy that we were once depending on, now he gets to be the the fourth guy and he had a pretty decent game versus the Eagles as well, Brian. So that’s a pretty good bumping. Yeah, you absolutely got the right way. I think let me give me the quarterbacks. I think there were some questions. I think there was some questions about the thing the fact that Diggs played opening day and I’m going to say it a thousand times. Credit to him and and I’ll admit I was very very skeptical about him coming back. Very skeptical about that. but he got himself uh got himself ready, got himself in shape, and then was able to be a contributor against a very good uh offensive uh receiving crew for the Philadelphia Eagles. So, with all that being said, now I feel a lot better. Go ahead. You know, you got a situation now. Diggs starts, Bland starts, Bland, uh and then uh Elim comes off the bench when you’re going to play nickel. That’s now now that’s it was a group that we were talking about. Well, do they have enough? Do they have to go get a guy? Is it, you know, is it Carson? Who, you know, who are they, what are they doing here? Is it, you know, how fast can Rell be back? No, I think that, you know, it’s it’s a situation now where it went from being chaotic to having some some stable elements to it. Yeah, that’s a good one. And now for this one, I think the answer would be pretty evident, but which player do you expect to bounce back big time this coming week? expect or I would love to bounce back or you expect or I mean sure you can say that you love I would love I would love if Dante Fowler played a little better. You know he’s a guy that’s that’s that’s the veteran in the edge room and he he he got lost on a lot of those rundowns. If you’re the edge your job is more than just pass rushing and and honestly if he’s going to make his hey as pass rusher he didn’t do that to the best of his abilities I would say but in the rundown didn’t read the counters as well. Kind of got hooked sometimes. didn’t contain really well. And if you’re against Jaylen Hersz, these running quarterbacks, Russell Wilson is another one that’s coming there. One thing that the Washington team did really well was that they maintain the edges and they made Russell step up into the pocket, right? Uh the Cowboys had had uh Jaylen Herz running to the outside. You you can’t have that. Uh Donzaku as well, like don’t don’t flock for holding calls, right? Just a football adage, Brian. Don’t let them hold you, right? That’s what that’s what coaches would say to you. So, if if I want anybody to play better and the Giants O line isn’t great, I don’t know if Andrew Thomas is going to be playing or not, but if they roll out the same five that they rolled out last week, uh then Dante Fowler and Donovan are going to have an opportunity to redeem themselves, but uh boy, if they are better on top of what you’re getting from your interior, then now you can walk into the next few games with a lot of hope for your Dline as a whole. Yeah, this is probably going to be unpopular to say, but give me Jake Ferguson. M and you know and I think Jake Ferguson had a couple of situations in that football game where he would have loved to had back. He is he is very dependable, very sure-handed. Dak Prescott put a couple balls on him in that in that end zone that he he’s got to come up with and you know he if if he catches the ball and kind of protects himself that probably doesn’t look as bad as what happened. you know, yes, he drew the penalty, but that’s that’s a ball that if you when you watch the tape and you watch from the end zone copy, the ball’s on his hands and then there’s no contact yet. That’s a ball that Jake Ferguson catches nine out of 10 times. Yeah. And unfortunately, but I think this is going to be a game. We’ll see how the Giants play in the secondary when we really start to break down and see where their guys are. Well, I feel like the Cowboys tight ends usually tend to have a pretty good game against the Giants. Sure. the Jason Whitten used to own the Giants when he played against them and so yeah, it’s it’s a lot how they play their coverage, how they play their safeties. You know, those are the things that you always look for when you’re breaking down the opponent. But the I I could see Jake Ferguson once again making some really, really tough catches in this Giants game and kind of get him back on track. There’s, like I say, it’s unfortunate because he’s coming down with that ball. it just, you know, it just out of his hands and and you know, and he got hit, but man, he he makes those plays again eight, nine, 10 nine of times for for those types. Also too, Brian, um Ambar gave us a layup and we missed it. Uh who do we expect? And she said, “Oh, it’s the this would be an easy answer.” And we just totally went all around in circles and we went, you know what I’m saying? But Sidi Lamb, right? Absolutely. Yeah, that’s the the pardon me. The given even though Cidd Lamb was what, seven for 118. I never You never really worry about him. you don’t worry about. Right. Right. So now CD Lamb going into a game with worse corners and and look this this this could be a huge pick game as well. No, but but both of those guys, right? And it’s hard to say, hey, seven for 118. How’s he going to have a better game? He could have went 13 for 250, whatever. Uh I think both wide receivers are going to have a better day. Pick any pick any pick any linebacker you want, too, by the way. I mean, you hope you hope that it’s not you hope that we’re not talking about again some some poor linebacker play, you know, this week and and and hopefully that those guys can kind of, you know, pull some things together and with the offensive line the way it is with the Giants, maybe that we’ll see them a little bit more active in making some of those plays downhill. Brian, let me ask you this. I’ve asked you this before when me and you kind of did our pod, but let me dress it up in a different way for a different answer for you. How many games do you go, assuming that the linebacker play is bad again? How many games do you go before we’re thinking about big change, right? Like not just, okay, well, let’s bring Lift out from outside before we making phone calls trying to get linebackers up in here. How many more games? I think that you’re in the situation, you’re probably going to get through the this month of the season. You’re probably going to look at the four games, you know, you see how things how things play out when you’ve got the uh you got this game coming up with the Giants, got Bears, and then Packers. I think after the Packers game that you will you will kind of figure out at that point in time that we probably need to do something differently here. The the the easy changes right now we’re trying to use some of the young guys if you want you know with James and Buddy Johnson. I don’t know if they want to go that route but also use Mis Leafoul as well in this in the scheme but if it gets to the point where your linebackers are somewhat of a liability I I think you got to go sooner than later. Yeah, I would I would agree with that timeline before making a big change of like trying to bring somebody else from the outside, right? Um, and real quick be uh going back to the CD Lamb stuff, you mentioned V him working out with the jug machine and to me, not that I would expect anything less because you’re talking about top wide receiver. He knows what to do. He knows his job. He knows what to put into the game. But it’s still like we got back around 4 in the morning, 4:30 in the morning and then I’m walking down right the next day to shoot a show right around 1 in the afternoon and he’s out there working out on his own, you know, doing those exercises and it’s just one of those signs of relief. Not that we need it, but he’s like, “Oh, yes, I love him. Keep doing that. Keep doing that work, putting it in.” So, I’m expecting him to come back and have a very good game against the Giants. Now, which position group is under the most pressure this season? Linebackers? For the whole season? For the whole season or just for for the whole season? Not Not for this week. Linebackers, you know, the Yeah, they’ve got to figure that out. No, no, go ahead. Watchers. Dealing with the run, Brian. Like, like like that’s the one thing that the Cowboys like year in and year out have um trouble dealing with. And you know, you’ve looked at the at the tackle group on defense, right? And you’ve gone, okay, we’ve stepped up there. Now, you want your edges to kind of step up, but you feel like they can like Marshon Nean will be fine as a run defending edge edge guy, right? If if the linebackers then bring their game up, then you wouldn’t have an issue about your run defense and now you can go pass rush and, you know, catch picks all you want to. But if your linebackers are bad throughout the rest of the season and then that creates this this this situation like we’ve like we’ve been running to the past three or three three or um four years like the team don’t have to throw against us like the Russell Wil he doesn’t have to throw a pass. Tyrone Tracy just ran for 250 yards. That’ll be embarrassing. So you need your your linebackers to meet where your D tackles are. Can can I maybe flip this and I’ll see if I’ll get a reaction from you guys on this one. You talk about the most pressure. How about the wide receivers? And I say this in a way of you feel like that maybe you gave away a game because your best receiver didn’t make plays and your other receiver didn’t get enough targets. Is this offense going to be predicated on how they go with Lamb and with Pickins? I I know I threw in their Ferguson stuff like that, but is there pressure on this? We feel like the running game might be serviceable right now with the offensive line. I mean, we we’ve seen videos. I mean, we’ve done our own work, Vouch, where we’ve seen movement. We’ve seen pullers. We’ve seen blockers. We’ve seen, you know, we’ve seen some positivity that way. But you just lost a game where your best player Yeah. didn’t perform. Is that mean there’s more pressure on the wide receivers now every week to deliver at such a high level? Is the margins for this team winning and losing predicated on how CD Lamb and Pickins play? Well, going into the game, going into the game last week when we were talking about this matchup, something that we all talked about here was the offense is going to have to score points to win that game. And I thought we’ve talked about it like the defense did enough quote unquote, but the offense they left some points on the table. And yes, when you look at those key moments, you say, “Well, crap, like your receivers should have played better and and finished that game.” Uh, so yeah, absolutely agree with that. And you know, just like the linebackers have to meet the tackles, the wide receivers got to meet Dak. Exactly. You know, Dak like Dak can go out and throw the best passes in the world, but if you don’t catch him, then it really doesn’t matter. So, and and honestly, I don’t I don’t think CD Lamb is going to have a big problem. I think he’s he’s going to bounce right back. I just think he’s he wanted to compete so bad and he wanted to just whoop the Eagles so bad that he lost his focus that he lost focus on catching first and then go be fantastic yet guy CD Lamb. Um I think he’ll be better because whenever we catch CD Lamb doing that, you know, running into a drive, so like pouting on the sideline, he come back the very next game cleans it right up. So I don’t have any issues with Lamb. I do want to see Pickings though. Yeah, I do too. CP and that’s on that’s my only Brian Shottenheimer fault. That is my only Brian Shottenheimer fault for this whole this whole thing. And it kind of takes me back to last year moments when we were like, man, I wish we saw more of Cooks. Brandon Cooks. Yeah, Brandon Cooks being incorporated into the offense and being utilized a lot more. So hopefully we don’t go into another season of where you’re asking your wide receiver number two to be incorporated more. One thing I thought was positive though is those few plays that we did see Kavonte Turpin in there. So at least there’s that and hopefully they can figure out a way to get everybody else involved in a better way. Let’s go ahead and go into our final break. When we come back, we’ll continue this conversation about the Dallas Cowboys. Hey, if you can’t be at the stadium, there’s no better way to watch your Cowboys than on an LG OLED EVO TV. That’s because everything you see is more lifelike. Every play, every hit. I mean, you might as well be on the sidelines. That’s how clear it is. It’s all thanks to LG’s legendary technology. Perfect black. Over 8.3 million self-lit pixels. No one comes close. LG OLED Evo is the best TV in the game for a reason. See for yourself at lg.com/ OLED EVO. It’s the official men’s skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black. And right now, Cowboys fans can get 15% off their $75 order. 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Paul, you tried to redeem yourself and you just made it worse. No, no, no, no, no. That was terrible. Hit the button. It’s just a It’s a button. All right, this next question, I think it plays into exactly what we were talking about. So, I’ll just ask it anyways, but it might be the same answer. What position group will define whether this team makes the playoffs or not? I see where you’re going. I should have said, yeah, to me now it’s the wide receiver group. But give a different answer, but but I’ll tell you I’ll give you I’ll give you a different answer. I’ll tell you the the different answer. It might be Gosh dang, I’m kind of stuck here. Might be the offensive line, but I kind and I’ll let you talk about the offensive line because I I think that’s your area of expertise. I’ll focus on this. I give me the secondary. Give me the secondary because if all of a sudden Dallas doesn’t have the ability to create pressures, it’s going to be about coverage. Then it’s going to be about it’s going to be about playing those zone concepts and picking up guys running. if if all of a sudden you’re not replacing the pressures that you had at one time and you’re not getting the sacks, if your secondary is not good enough. And by the way, uh talking to some people in the organization, Hooker’s toe, he was on uh the report yesterday as you know, don’t worry about it. The toe, everything’s fine with that toe. So, that’s going forward. But I think the secondary cuz I I’m like I say they’ve got to figure out with the Ezarco. They got to figure out Sam Williams. They’ve got to figure out Fowler. They’ve got to figure out ways even though the pressure numbers were up. I think a lot of the pressure numbers were up because of because Hertz against zone coverage is just not very good. Yeah, he he he has struggles finding where the space where he needs to be. So, he was holding the football and that allowed you guys to kind of rally in position. But it’ll be the secondary. If this team if this team makes the playoffs, I think the secondary will be the reason why, especially if they don’t get the pass rusher. You know, we said in the first and the second segment that, you know, one thing that’s that this offense needs to do is put points on the board and run the ball. And just watching the film, Brian, I think you were able to run the ball based on what this offensive line was able to do. You moved some bodies, Brian. I was so impressed with the Cowboys ability to move bodies. And as of, you know, recently, you know, the Cowboys have, the Cowboys offensive line had, you know, they’ve been more hat- on hat guys, right? Stalemate, we’re here. We’re just getting in front. And then you just kind of read, you’re pushing people now. BB’s pushing people now. Booker, you’re pushing people. The combos, right? Brea and Gen, they’re moving bodies. And now we’re in the red zone goal line to where we haven’t been great there at all. Now you’re pushing Jordan Davis three yards to the side. Right. So now, if we’re going to continue to run the football, and you said on the last show, you want to see Williams get a lot more carries. Let’s run the ball some more. Like, you know, Dak had about 30, you know, 30 or so attempts, let’s give Williams some more. When Blue comes back, whenever Jaydon Blue comes back, then let’s get him involved. I badly want the Cowboys to be a team. And I get jealous when I watch the Eagles or the the NerS. They win these games where Jaylen Herz threw the ball 15 times for 110 yards, but they blew out the other 10 cuz they ran so well. I want the Ravens to do it. I want Dak Prescott to go out there, hand the ball off, and maybe throw for 110, 12 attempts, but boy, Javvante Williams was just eating him up and and and Jaydon Blue goes in there and tears it up. I want the run game to kind of take this thing over. That can be great, but just like in the Romo administration, take some off of him so when you do throw, he’s efficient. And let’s keep leaning on the run game when we end up in the red zone and stuff like that. I know we’re excited about throwing the ball in the red zone, but I don’t need Brevin Span forward to jump ball and jump over people. It’s cool that you can, but that but now that you can hand the ball to Javvante Williams and you can push Jordan Davis five yards, let’s push Dexter Lawrence a little bit. Double team him though. Let’s push Dexter Lawrence. Let’s push um Deon Payne and all those guys. So, O for sure. After week one, I think you do have the personnel to create that balance, the right balance between the run game and the passing game. All right. Which young player could become a breakout star by midseason? Let’s say a breakout uh you would love for it to be domin because the chat will get mad. But if you’re missing something there, then you want your young players to kind of fill in that spot. And Donovan won’t be buddy that just left and went to the other team. But if if Don Ezrau gets you seven sacks this year, I think that’s a that’s a pretty good win for you. Technically, Marshon Neland is a young guy year, you know, he’s a year two guy. So, if he steps up as a you can trust him to lead the way as a run defender and then he continues to get better as a pass rusher, then now Marshon Nean’s a guy I think he’s going to be really good, Brian Bro. Yeah, I I I like what you did there. I think Nean is the is the right answer there. I I’ll also throw this one out at you. How about Tyler Gayton? For sure. How about Tyler Gayton? How about all of a sudden, you mean we How about with Tyler Gayton is in his ability to every week get a little bit better, have a little bit more confidence. I think he played like a confident football player in that game the other day. Wasn’t pretty, wouldn’t, you know, wouldn’t ideal all the time, but watch watch, you know, watch Penny Su going against the guy you just traded away. Yeah. One of the best tackles in the game. And you you watch him play against Micah. There was some struggles out there. Tackles are going to struggle. But this one, I think if you start to talk about a young guy that’s playing with a little bit of confidence right now that has the ability because the athletic ability, he’s working on his strength, he’s got a little bit better understanding, and he’s getting experience. I think that’s the guy that could that could have at the end of it could be a guy that has that breakout kind of year where we’re like, “Oh, we were worried about the left tackle spot.” Well, we’re not having to worry about the left tackle anymore. And honestly, if we get to October, November, and Jaydon Blue is getting you 100 yards a game, we throwing a party. Like, absolutely. That’s what I was going to say. Happy as hell, but he’s got to play. He’s got to find a way to play. Brian, what did you make of the of uh Shotti’s comments regarding Jaydon Blue? I think it’s I think Shotti has been very, very honest, and I think there, as you like to say, there were previous administrations that wouldn’t be that honest. I know the Jason Garrett administration would never admit or never come out and say a player wasn’t playing well and he wasn’t doing everything he needed to do. I don’t think Mike McCarthy was always very critical of his guys. I’m sure somebody will clip something and tell me, “Oh, no, he did this.” But I feel like that with Brian Shaime is very honest and if he’s using the media to send a message and these players say, “Oh, I don’t listen. I don’t watch. I don’t hear.” Well, you might not, but your family does and they let you know and now now you’ve heard. But yeah, he he sent he sent him a message basically saying, “Listen, you got to practice hard on Wednesday, you got to practice hard on Thursday, you got to finish things out on Friday, and if I if you do all those things and you take it from the classroom to the field and you’re able to do all those things, I’ll play on Sunday.” And I think that I think message sent and probably message well received. Do you um do you guys think Amber, let me ask you that like that’s that’s good for the locker room? Like the answer is yes. But just like, hey, this is the message and we’re consistent with this message. Like, I don’t care who you are. And there’s a lot of hype around Jay Unble. And I’m sure that the that the guys in, you know, the guys in the locker room know that, but hey, we’re just going to roll with Javvante because you ain’t picking up third downs. And if if we were to let you out there and you don’t pick up a third down, you get that killed, right? So, that’s like consistent like with this message that um Shotti is saying, right? Well, I think if if Shotti didn’t have h had not put the work that he’s put into building a culture, I think that would be a problem. Initially, when we talked about all these little outings, activities that he was doing for the players, you wonder, okay, is he going to be too nice, too soft on the players? And then you get something like that to for him to speak in that way. It gives a a a strong voice, a lot of validity that, you know, he’s gonna hold players accountable. And yeah, some people might say, “Oh, well, keep it in private.” Well, no. I mean, you don’t have to sit there and and lie either. I think, yeah, Shotty, he’s very honest, and that’s why he’s so wellliked, and I think he continues to build build character and popularity in that way, holding each player accountable. And I don’t think he he’s killing the players and saying anything terrible. He’s just, you know, making it known what needs to happen. I think I think the guys he started this all out the way he’s handling Mazy Smith. Exactly. Yeah. You know, the the thing with Mazy’s been very consistent now. Maybe the front office wanted to keep Mazy Smith. Maybe the coaching staff said, “Well, okay, if we’re going to keep Mazy Smith, we’re going to make him earn his keep. And if Mazy Smith ain’t earning his keep every week, then you know the Shanheimimer says on the Friday meeting, I’m thinking about sitting Mazy Smith down. Okay. Well, then you go out and you dress JT and you have the success that you had. I wouldn’t touch the defensive tackle rotation right now. Yeah. I I’m not making Mazy Smith active. Matter of fact, you know, he you know, with the number of tackles you have, uh, you know, Winfrey was going to Winfrey was inactive. Mazy can be inactive and you could be just fine with the guys you got. There’s no reason to dress Mazy Smith unless in fact you feel like that he has made enough progress in practice. But I would I wouldn’t touch that group. I wouldn’t take JT and those guys off the field right now for Mazy Smith, you know. No. Now, even though he’s playing against and and Vachu and I know this, John Michael Smiths is a guy that he tends to play pretty well against, but it it started this whole thing with Jayon blue. It started with Mazy Smith. They’ve been really consistent. Bring him into the office. Hey, you’ve got to improve. You got to be better. just because you’re a first round pick, you don’t get to do these things. So, I think that I think he’s being consistent with that. You know, Brian, you uh made a great point because I’m just on social medias all the time and there’s this talking point that Winfrey is out. Yeah. That that means Mazy is No. I was like, nah, man. Both of them were just out. You got you got you got you got too many defensive tackles. Yeah. You got too many. You could you could honestly you sat Winfrey because of the the spasms and you could sit Mazy again and you’ve got the same rotation. you run out there against the Eagles, I wouldn’t touch it right now. I would not touch it. Well, just like you mentioned it yesterday. Yeah. You I think after the performance that we watched against the Eagles and especially when you talk about the run defense, that area of focus, it was really good. Yeah, the quarterback skate, but again, you contain the running back and that was huge. And I would like to see the same thing. And and Winfrey, he’s a guy that you see the upside, you see the potential. It would have been nice to have. see the potential. Him and Clark, him and Clark are a perfect pair for guys that are playing on the other teams side of the ball. So, it’s a nice to have when he comes back maybe depending where you’re at, you know, they Yeah, JT might be really good. It’s kind of the same thing with like Mingo, you know, until like you say, Fenoi and Tolbert. I think Tolbert’s on alert right now myself, you know, Tolbert Tolbert, he’s been stepping it up. Well, Tolbert needs to figure out though, too. Tolbert needs to figure out too because I I think that was a very very quiet game for him. You know, Tolbert needs to find a way to get going here. And maybe my bar has kind of lowered to where what’s I think I think that’s probably why I’m like he’s been he’s Amber, your Tbert bar is right there on the ground. Oh my god. Terrible. I’m talking about blocking better. We all root for, you know, we root for these players to be but it’s your Yeah, but what is it now? Four. You’re four, right? This the problem. If Tober is not going to be on the field catching passes, then you’re out there to block and tackle people on teams. Florida is a better teams guy and Florida is a better blocker for you. So, Tobit is on alert, Brian. That’s fair. Yeah. All right. Well, with that, we end the show. Tomorrow, we’re going to start the breakdown. Cowboys defense versus the Giants offense. Brian brings the full breakdown. and Vosch, you guys know he’s gonna have all his questions ready and comments to talk about this game, which he thinks it will be an automatic win for the Cowboys. I would never I would never say that on the Giants. He knows better. I’m just a fan and I’m just going to walk into every game saying the Cowboys can beat the hell out of their team. Uh especially this week, but I I think the Giants and we’re going to talk about it more tomorrow. I think there are challenges that the Cowboys have to deal with and if they deal with those challenges, then we can expect some positive outcomes. But Dex Lawrence ain’t just going to go easy. No. Well, we’ll get into that full breakdown tomorrow. For Vot Lombardi, Brian Bus, and member Garcia, this has been the break on dallascowboys.com radio. 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