LIVE: Cowboys Break Podcast | 9-11-25 | Dallas Cowboys 2025

LIVE: Cowboys Break Podcast | 9-11-25 | Dallas Cowboys 2025

The break on dallascowboys.com. We were on the break with Amar Garcia, Brian Bris, Vach Lombardi, and Derek Eagleton. It is Thursday, September 11, 2025, season 25, 21, episode number 35. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We are live from the SWBC mortgage studios at the Star. We’re presented by LG. LG is the world’s number one OLED TV brand for 11 years in counting. Y at lg.com OLED Evo. And before we get going, I do need to uh I just want to recognize it being the anniversary of September 11th. Uh for those of us that live through it, it will be indel indelibly imprinted on our brains. Uh but certainly for those folks out there who have family members who perish that day, I just think it’s the right thing to do every time this anniversary comes up to just acknowledge those folks because they still live with the uh the horrible tragedy that happened that day and their loved ones who perish. So giving a shout out to those folks and and we’re definitely thinking and praying about you guys today. Praying for you guys today. Yeah, it’s uh and if I too can say something too, there’s a couple of scouts that lost their lives too with the on the planes. Uh yeah, LA Kings lost a couple scouts and a gentleman doing things that we all love evaluating players and going and seeing games and and these things. So um Ace Bailey, you know, these guys, we we we all miss you. We really really do for uh for what you did and uh like I say, doing something you absolutely love. All right, we appreciate that. And uh let’s go ahead and let’s jump in uh to the Cowboys. There’s a lot of different things that have kind of transpired here over the last couple days that we need to hit. Uh we will get to in the second segment our breakdown of the Giants defense versus the Cowboys offense. Uh Brian and Vach have some stuff there for us. Uh but let’s start first with Don Bland. Uh we’re hearing that he has an injury. Is it I’ve heard two different reports. I’ve heard a foot injury. I’ve heard an ankle injury. I assume it’s a I think it’s a foot injury. That’s what I’ve heard more. But what what do we know right now as far as the injury uh for Don Bland? Both. It’s both. Yeah, it’s both. It’s both. And uh I’m with you, Derek. Initially it was uh it was I I thought man it was that fifth metatarsal thing was a problem on the his his foot before and you were worried okay did he reinjure that and but it’s the opposite foot it is a foot and injury a foot and ankle is what they’re saying they didn’t seem too concerned about it talking to people in the organization likely not going to play this week we’ll see what happens in the the coming weeks as well but at least right now and it was something that happened on Monday So, um, that’s, uh, that it’s not anything that came out of the game. It was it was a Monday practice injury. And so, uh, they’re dealing with that. And watch, they won’t let us, uh, they won’t let two corners or two corners play together, will they? Or three. I don’t know what is happening. Yeah. You know, you go back to Jordan Lewis and Gilmore. All we’ve ever wanted was three really good corners on the field at the same time. And boy, we just keep on ducking and dodging. You know, Trey came back super early. Like, oh boy, Trey’s back early. We’re definitely going to get our um you know corners on the field now, but then Bland goes down. So uh you know hopefully you know you know Brian like you said on your golden phone whoever it was you was um reaching out to that it’s not super serious that it’s not Bland being 15 years of working here. Hey man that’s that’s much better than than whoever I can call. I could just call Derek and ask him. Yeah. But uh but yeah so just Bland will be back soon. We’ll see. We hope we hope. We’ll see. And um yeah, we’ll just go from there and hope nobody gets hurt until then. But from a um the next move I would say uh Readyy’s up next. Yeah, Ready Stewart will probably Yeah, Ready Stewart will probably step in there and play your nickel corner and so that’ll be Elim and Diggs and then uh and then Ready Stewart be uh ready to go. How how how much do you feel like there is a step back? Because obviously there’s a reason why the starter is the starter. Yep. How much of a step back is it uh with without Bland and with Ready Stewart? Let’s assume he’s the guy with him being the guy that that steps in in the slot. If it was Zion Children’s, I could have given you an answer because I’ve seen him. I don’t know nothing about Ready. I mean, we’ve seen some some games from Ready and he’s, you know, we we have a decent report on him and we’ve talked about him here on the show, but uh we don’t know what Ready looks like amongst all these guys. So, I guess the Giants will be getting the first look when we will. Yeah, that this giant bunch as we in Vot and I get into this though, we we you know, the defensive side, but the offensive side, this team will try and spread you out. You know, they play with with a lot of width on their on their offense. You know, the Cowboys, they used to be a team and we talk about now the condensed looks and stuff like that. The Giants play pretty wide. They play spread offense. So, they’re going to they’re going to need to be able to match up with the thing that Ready can do is he is a very good with the foot quickness stuff and and depending on how they put in with with Robinson in the slot or neighbors in the slot, that’s where I think that that this game can kind of hinge for them because, you know, you you felt comfortable with Bland being able to go in there and then you were getting to a point where also this week it sound like that Diggs is even ready to go more. I think he he he got a he got some work last week, you know, against the Eagles, but now it seems like, okay, full go put him in there. And you were hopeful that you could go with Bland and Diggs as your starters. And then if you went to the nickel, then here comes Elum and you kick Bland inside. So now it’s going to be Elim and and and uh and Diggs as your starters. And then with Ready being ready to go inside, but that’s where he plays. He’s a slot player. He’s got quickness. And the matchups will kind of vary a little bit to whether I can say whether it’s Robinson or Neighbors. Also too, Brian, the Cowboys going to run a lot of zone anyway. So you’re you’re not going to get ready on some island with Well Robinson. That may be fearful because you know Readyy’s not the fastest corner in the world. Uh but if we’re going to be running zone, then he has to just communicate and pass things along. And if he knows the defense already, then that should be decent for him. Well, at least uh you know you’re playing the Giants and we talked about Neighbors and everybody on the wide receiver corpse yesterday, but with Neighbors, he was limited at practice yesterday with the back and it doesn’t sound like it’s anything really serious, but still something that popped up on the injury report as well. And like you guys talked about it yesterday too, the hopefully the pressure comes from the defensive line and they’re able to do that work there because you don’t want to be able to depend on what the cornerbacks are now having to do if Neighbors is fully healthy. Yeah. One thing of note, and I I don’t know if you guys mentioned this on the show. I’ve been a little MIA here the last few days, but uh Cowboys, I saw this the the graphic that I’m maybe you guys talked about that the Cowboys were the second highest had the second highest pressure rate uh in week one of the NFL among NFL teams. Uh which was a little bit of a surprise to me because they didn’t it didn’t show up in sacks, but certainly from a standpoint of pressures, it showed up and uh and so if if the Cowboys can continue that, that certainly can have an effect. That’s a good chance to continue on that this week with this bunch with the Giants. Yeah. And the point being that this is not a quarterback that scares you with his legs. Not like Jaylen did. He he actually took advantage of those situations and actually got out of the pocket and then he’s off and running. I don’t think you have to worry about that as much against Russell Wilson. I think a lot of that came from Jaylen Herz and it sound like I’m hating on him. Sorry, but Jaylen Herz missing reads and holding on to the ball and then eventually pressure gets to him and then he kind of runs around a little bit. Russell Wilson’s going to try to get rid of the ball faster. So that that that number may look a little different, but boy, this Giants offensive line is much worse than than the last one you just um rolled up against. So that might even out a little bit. Are there free agents out there? And I know we all agree that that the Cowboys are probably going to go in house for the answer here at quarterback for these few few weeks. Are there free agents though that you guys if you were making the call that you would say, “Hey, I would give this guy a call and bring him in. I think he can help you.” Brian, social media says that we should be calling Gilmore. What do you think the front office thinks about? Well, the front office will tell you that they they they kind of feel like that Gilmore can’t run like he once did and then and he cannot play with that the the quickness and the burst that he had. It was starting to kind of show up a little bit. The guy that’s interesting is Asante Samuel Jr., but that’s not until October. You know, you’re he’s going to, you know, and and I don’t think that one’s coming cheap either, you know, but I they’re they’re confident that they can probably do stuff inhouse. I know the social media, as you said, guys, and it tends to be, you know, what about Gilmore? What about Gilmore? And I I think they’re going to try and, you know, they they made two claims. Yeah. Uh, you know, at the at on the waiverwire, both cornerbacks, put two cornerbacks on the street, and they’ve got guys on the practice squad, too. I think it’s I think it’s just going to really it’s it is going to come from in-house. But Asanti Samuel Jr. would be the one that I would would would would look at, but you have to get him medically cleared and it’s probably not going to be cheap. Yeah, the the Cowboys showed you what they felt about cornerback. Like they let go a lot of their guys and then Ready and Weezy just kind of show up. I think Ready and Weezy are your cornerback help from outside and I think they’re going to cross their fingers and wait for guys to get healthy whether it be um you know, Bland or um Butler Butler, you know. So, so I mean that’s just another name that you’re just kind of waiting on. But if your statement was just like a blanket, you know, can we bring anybody in? Hey, running backs, we still looking around. You know, if if if there’s a team that has a young running back that probably doesn’t want to be there. Hey, we’ll, you know, I would love if the Cowboys could make that make that phone call there. If Jaydon Blue is not Yeah. consistent enough to give you burst on the field and my Sanders is giving the ball to the other team, then I think that that’s a conversation that the Cowboys carry two running backs for a reason, bro. You know what I mean? Like, like maybe numbers and all this kind of stuff and not using Lippy, but maybe they only carry two running backs because they only really got faith in two of them. So maybe that’s Yeah. I I think to me that that if it was interesting and I I just like everybody’s opinion here. I felt like the the uh the clowny visit was kind of strange in a way and I I know where you know and I I want to try and understand and is it is it are you not happy with or is it just like we’re saying always kicking the tires? You know, I was told kick the tires, but you don’t kick the tires if you’re, you know, you’re just like, “Okay, well, we’re going to bring this guy in just to have a look.” I just wonder if there’s something in their mind that they’re thinking about, well, something with Fowler, something with Ezaraku, something with Sam Williams. Is there something that they’re not getting that they could maybe get from Fowler? Or is it fact that they’re just trying to look at their emergency board and make sure that the guys they have? It just seemed like a a an unusual visit in week two. Well, give me give me your assessment of that, Brian. What you saw from those players that you just mentioned? Yeah. Was there anything that you saw as a deficit that Javian Clowney could possibly fill that would make Dallas say, “Hey, let’s just take a look and see where he is. See if he’s somebody that either now or in the future could be helpful to us.” Help me here, Vaj with this one, though. Is this is this a situation where you’re kind of worried about Fowler just being a starter and then him him not playing the assignment like he needed to play, you know, especially with the run stuff and is Fowler not a starter, but Fowler a guy that you just kind of want to bring off the bench and then are you worried about putting too much on Ezaraku’s plate? I think that’s a that’s part of it, but I think you can never have too many of those guys. uh you just let go of one of the best in the league. So maybe you’re just crossing your tees and dotting your eyes on possibly making that room back somewhere close to what it is. And I give the the Joneses credit. Uh normally they’ll wait around till Clowny signs to the Cardinals or something and now we’re like, “Okay, well we can use pass rush help in week eight. Where’s the help at?” You know, if you can bring Clowny in right now and and you know, bump guys on the roster down. Clown may be a old character, but is he a better run game right now than Dante Fowler? Is he a better pass rusher right now than Sam Williams or something like that? Uh, so if you can find the help, go get the help. Like pass rush or pass rushers, they’re different than like quarterback. You got one quarterback that comes out, another quarterback comes in. You know, you can put Sam and Clowny and Fowler on the field at the same time if you want. Uh, so just get ahead of it. And Brian, to your point, maybe they’re looking at at Fowler. And I, you know, I always ask, how many more games of something negative do you have to see before you make a move on that? Maybe they’re a couple of games away from making a move if Donzaraku isn’t the rookie that we thought he was and kept. Yeah, I think honestly that’s the way I look at it. I actually think it would be early for me to make that kind of move because I kind of want to see how they develop. I think the edges, particularly those players, I think they played well in the second part of that game after the the break, uh after the the unexpected break, um I thought they played better in in in the game at that point, specifically in the in run defense. And so that being said, I kind of want to play it out a little bit. Um I think you you see what you see in Clowny. You see if there’s something there that if you need him in the future, you could maybe go and make a deal with him. you probably find out a little bit about what his expectations would be from a financial standpoint. Um, and then you just prepare yourself in the event that you need it and then you let the weeks play out and let’s see how these guys perform. Let’s see how Ezaraku develops as well. This is a a rookie. So, let’s let’s see how he develops as well, but I think it’s a little early for me if to make that kind of move. AG, I mean, how about us having this conversation? You would have never believed we’d be thinking about making moves for defensive tackles. Now, here we’re talking about edges. never would have believed this, right? Well, I’m here thinking uh processing all this. I’m like, yeah, well, waiting it out and seeing has hurt us so many other times. Like we’ve seen this story before in different positions where you just, oh, let’s wait it out and see how the talent develops and then you’re next thing you know getting close to December trying to figure things out and you can’t and it’s a little too late. So, I’m okay with them bringing in. Uh, and that doesn’t mean I don’t I truly don’t believe that it implies necessarily that they don’t believe in the guys and the talent that they currently have. It’s just one of those things just like you said, you still need development. You still need that time to grow and it makes you feel better if you do have some other experience there that is available at any given time that you don’t have to now be freaking out and going outside and seeing, oh, well, who we got? So, I’m okay with that. Let’s see. Let’s see what comes from it. He um what was the Clowny? Clowny. Mhm. He was out here hanging out all day long yesterday. Basically, did you have lunch with him yesterday? Eating food, drinking, just he watched practice. He was watching practice. So, it wasn’t one of those things that he came in and out and left. You never know what’s going to happen. We could find some news happening today, but he was here for a long time yesterday. Just I just since you and Votch tend to want to make changes right now here and Derek is interested. Let the ride the course. Who you taking out of the mix? Well, see my colleagues. Well, see, Brian, think about this. When the Cowboys first made roster cuts, they’re not evil smile. Look at his smile. This don’t bother. I’m used to this. When the when the when I knew I couldn’t draw you off. Look, watch this. Cuz when the Cowboys when the Cowboys first made roster cuts, they carry six edges. They did carry six. You lose Micah, now you’re five. So maybe it was their plan to carry six all together. So hey, you know, so now instead of your backup plan being like Peyton Turner or something like that. Yeah, sure. Well, my backup plan is Jade Devian Clowny who got nine sacks uh uh two out of the last three years in the league. This could be for Turner then, right? Instead of somebody that’s currently playing right now. Possibly. Yeah, possibly. The other part to that too is, and this is the part where none of us really knows, or at least I don’t know, is what are his financial if he’s coming in and he’s asking for a lot of money. Again, I don’t know that I’m ready to make that kind of commitment to somebody. You’re like, “No, okay.” Yeah. Less than $10 million. I don’t think I think that if the money’s not right, then I don’t make the move. If the money’s right, then maybe I consider it. Derrick, you got money. What are you doing over there? Yeah, but I I still don’t get reckless with my money. I don’t care how much money you got. You still need to be smart about this organization loves to pay the top dollar for everything. $10 million is much cheaper than what 43 47 or whatever it is. Yeah. So, yeah. So, so, so when you ran into Brother Steven and he said, “Yo, Brian, I got I got Brother Steven told me he’s got money now.” Brother, Brother Steven got told. All right, we going to take our first break. We’ll come back. Let’s talk a little about the Giants defense versus this Cowboys offense. We’ll be back in just a moment. This is Dallascowboys.com radio. 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/EVO. I’m home. Hey, Mom. Before you ask, I’ve done my homework and the dishwasher’s unloading. Nice. Hey, can you Hey, hun. Yes, I’ve got the finale ready to play. 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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. It is the second segment of the break. We are live from the SWBC mortgage studios at the Star. This segment is brought to you by blockchain.com. All right, Brian, give me a rundown on this New York Giant defense. Thoughts where we want to start with this thing. Do you want to start with those edge rushers? You want to start with that defensive tackle? I think the edge rushers are fantastic and it may take, you know, the most of our time because there’s three of them, right? And the Washington Football Wizards did a pretty decent job dealing with Dexter. Yeah. So, I think we should uh copy some of what they did. Brian, let’s leave that off. Okay. Well, I tell you what, he is uh he Dexter is one of those guys that’s going to get double teamed. I mean, he’s year in year out he’s the one of the highest double teamed guys in the league. So, yeah, you’re going to have to deal with him that way. He he he does something that’s really kind of unusual. and Vach and I talked about this as being a couple former offensive linemen is and how to deal with these guys that play a certain technique. And when you watch Dexter Lawrence play, he crowds you. He gives you no opportunity to get any type of separation. So when you try and get your hands on him, he’s already on top of you. So you can’t extend, you can’t get any momentum, you can’t push him like you need to push him because he he’s going to take all the ball. He’s going to get right up on you. He’s going to breathe the same air that you’re breathing. That’s how that’s how close he plays. He plays with a really wide stance. Very square. Very square. And it and it and it hurts you when you try and get him. You get stalemated by him. He’s a big guy. He’s a powerful guy. You know, that makes it very difficult. See, he forces you to have to double team him. And when you and that when if that happens, now you’ve got some linebackers that uh that uh that run to the football. Well, the Giants lost Michael McFaden yesterday or the other day in the game against the Commanders that really hurt them because here you are with, you know, when you when you talk about uh what Lawrence does, the linebackers go along with it. So, uh it this is one of those difficult tasks. BB is probably going to see a lot of Dexter Lawrence right on his nose in this football game. And if the Cowboys are and they they had some success last week handling those inside guys uh for the Eagles, this is another another big task for them. Bot, you know, Brian, sometimes what teams would do to deal with Dexter is they’ll just let one guy kind of lose the fight and the the next lineman get to the linebacker quickly so that they could try to make a move there. And that really doesn’t work because Dexter’s quicker than what you think he is, right? But him being so powerful, so square, so heavy, it is hard to kind of move him off his square. So we’re Cowboy fans, right? So we understand Bottish and his limitations. I was kind of mad a little bit, Brian. I was kind of jealous cuz they found a way to turn him a little bit and Dexter doesn’t get turned at all. So now in my mind, you have BB and which I think BB is more much more powerful than what uh Tyler Tyler was. Now what you have to do uh as the Cowboys, if you’re if you’re watching that film, Brandon um Coleman was another guy that’ll be in there helping at at um at a guard. use Big Tyler and use Book and turn Dexter Lawrence. So now what’s what’s not happening is him getting upfield. So now you can’t get pullers around him. And the Cowboys pulled a bunch, whether it be traps, uh they did some midline stuff, counters, you don’t want guards getting caught up in that funk. What the what the Cowboys were really good at, and shouts out to Shotty, man, cuz some of the old coaches didn’t do this, but if you have a deficiency, the Cowboys went right at it. Flu uh um Shotty went right at it. Cool. Carter’s gone. I’m going right at BAP. And what you saw is you saw movement on the interior and you saw pullers freely down the line, Brian Broader. So, if you can get um um Dexter Lawrence moved, I think this would be a fantastic day to uh run right at him. And some Cowboy fans would be nervous about running right at Lawrence, but you’ve seen Brock Hoffman be our guy or like we said, Tyler Bottes. And the Cowboys have run the ball recently decently uh versus uh versus Lawrence. I think you’re much better built in the middle uh from uh from your guards and your center and your running back really. Javvante can really pound on guys too. Uh so just not again vouch but but yeah Javvante is a very physical running back. Javvante to work on your vocabulary Javant G back in the day. Javvante Javante one time. Javante is Javvante. Well done. Congratulations. Javvante to Javvante. He’s trying to power through. Williams is a powerful running back. Yes. And it’ll wear down the defense if you keep running right at him. Brian Broers. Okay. When we start to talk about then the edges here and and you know there’s three of them. You and I kind of agree on if you’re going to run the football, you want to run it at these edges, right? You want to wear down because what we’re what we’re thinking about guys is here. If this turns into a game where all of a sudden you’re throwing every every snap or having to throw every snap, these edges are very very capable. I I I personally feel like that Abdul Carter, who they drafted uh very early last year, you know, from Penn State, he is a guy at three pressures in the game against the Commanders, they’re playing him just kind of like on third down. But what they’re doing with some of these these rushers is whether it’s Tibido, whether it’s Burns, whether it’s Carter, they’re standing him up behind the line of scrimmage. We’ve seen this before with if you remember with what Dan Quinn did, what with what Mike Zimmer did. when you take one of your best pass rushers and you put them like almost like an offball linebacker and then just kind of find spots where to attack. And that’s what they were able to do with Abdul Carter. They were able to to move him around and say, “Okay, we’re going to rush from this side. We’re going to attack this this edge or we’re going to attack this center. We’re going to attack this guard.” So, you have to be aware of that. Tibido is I feel like Tibido Tibido has gotten better. Yeah, I think there were times where his effort wasn’t always great and he was a rush down the middle guy and he got very very frustrated with that and now he seems like to me he’s got a little bit better feel for how he needs to get after these tackles. Brian, why don’t you think the Giants take Burns off the ball because he’s a little slimmer. They they do. They do. It’s funny they do. All three of them do that. And what what happens is they’ll put Burns to one side and then they’ll put Carter on the same side on the same side. Yeah. So they’re trying they’re trying to put actually Carter playing as a three technique or like a nickel tackle defensive tackle. So now they’re they’re they’re saying okay if you want to slide this thing to Tibido or you want to slide it to Burns well you’re going to have to also deal with Carter being on that side too. Think about Burns Brian and I was I was shocked at how much they had his hand down and and he was right over Tonsel and and Tonsel would wrestle with him all day. So when they ran the ball, they ran right at Burns. So in my mind, if you’re the Cowboys, you want to do that exact same thing. And you know, like I said, Burns like what 230 or something like that. Tons of Tonsel got him up out of there. So Tyler Gayton, who’s 320 or so, Tyler’s not the, you know, biggest in the world, but he’s heavy, right? So if Gayton leans on Burns a little bit, then maybe that’ll take a little bit of energy out pass rushing later. Yeah, we saw in the in the game against Philadelphia some really good and you mentioned the pullers and the midline stuff that they were able to do. The combination blocks between Span Ford and Gayton were able to move some guys, haul the defensive the edge for uh the Eagles. They knocked him out of there and then they got the they got Smith inside pulling. So I I would anticipate the same thing, Derek and Amber. I would anticipate that that you’re going to see the ball run at those edges. Uh maybe we’ll see a little bit off the we’ll see what happens inside if you get the doubles, but I think these edges I would make them have to fight blocks all day running the football. When you talk about them from a pass rush standpoint, I think I think we all look at them and on paper it’s a scary number of edges and they all you think have a lot of talent. Did they show that in game one that that they were really a a force and a menace when it comes to getting after the quarterback? Carter’s really good. Carter’s really good. And you know, we we we um we have to think about who the Washington’s line is right now. The Washington offensive line is much better than the Giants offensive line, right Brian? So that’s like Tonsel and like some other dudes that we like like for real. Brandon Brandon Coleman and those guys. So um uh Carter got four pressures I believe Brian three but you could you could see it in him. He flies off the football. Burns is a is a veteran but he was going against Tumblr but Burns was you know he was you know he was able to get sacks in other places. Yeah. Burns. Burns is a guy that breaks you down. I think he’s a little bit better. Tibido is like a get to your edge and try and win that way, maybe win with a little bit more power. Burns is a run up the field and slap your hands and move your hands and then get you kind of turned and then he’s he’s attacking. That’s the way that he was able uh to get to uh get to Daniels one time is he he just broke the tackle down and finished right on the spot where he needed to. Brian, would you say that Gayton and Steel would need more technique this game or do you think that this is a game where they have to rely on their actual physical ability? I think they’re going to have to I think it’s going to be technique driven in this one. I I did because what you got to do is with guys like this that they’re they’re attacking you. Sometimes you get these edge rushers that have a lot of movement to them and they’re kind of back back they’re going back and forth back and forth and then they’re rushing. These guys are getting up the field with that. So that that’s going to be really important because if you get a guy that does a lot of movement, all you do is sit, wait, patient, patient, patient. Vot will tell you about Booker, some of the things that Booker has problems with with quick defensive tackles is he gets too anxious. He’s too big. I mean, he just if he just sits down and waits and plays patiently, then those guys, they’re not by move all that movement’s not getting you to the quarterback. So, but the the Giants are a little bit different. Their guys are trying to get to the edge and trying to break you down. Technique, footwork, getting out of your stance. Good thing it’s a home game, too, because you’re not going to have to fight the crowd noise like you were fighting it last week. But they did they did a fine job in Philadelphia handling handling that noise and being able to get to where they needed to be. All right, let’s take our final break. We’ll come back. I want to talk a little bit more particularly about the secondary uh with the Giants, their past defense. In addition to that, we’ll talk about some matchups between the Cowboys and the Giants heading into this game. We’ll be back. DallasCowboys.com. Radio. Every day begins with a promise. A promise to work hard and to build a future. That’s why we’re here providing the tools, expertise, and John Deere equipment you have relied on for generations to help you get the job done right, we’re with you. That’s our promise to you. Because no matter the project or the challenge you’re facing, we’re with you. We’re united. I’m home. Hey, Mom. 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That’s getjackblack.com/cowboys with the code cowboys VIP. How’s it going? You see that Cowboys game? Oh, I watched. Been seeing some good things. Totally. They have some talent. Yep. Some great talent. And they got some fight. Hoping this is the year. Me, too. Oh, I’m Cody, by the way. I’m Travis. Nice to meet you, Travis. Go Cowboys. Go Cowboys. Make a new friend based solely on their shirt choice. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. The official bank of the Dallas Cowboys. Copyright 2025, Bank of America Corporation. From the field to the festivities, Luc Casey embodies the essence of luxury and tradition. Handcrafted with meticulous precision, each pair offers unmatched comfort and style. Stand tall while you’re tailgating or cheering in the stands with the Dallas Cowboys collection by Lucasy. Shop the collection today at the Luc Casey store at the Star in Fris or online at lucasey.com. Lucasey, the official boot of the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Back to the break. AT&T connecting changes everything. Welcome back. It is the final segment of the break. We are live from the SWBC mortgage studios at the Star. Uh let’s get to this uh this talk a little bit more about this Giants defense particularly in the secondary. What does the pass defense look like for them? I kind of feel like there’s a couple of different avenues here that you can attack. And I was I was visiting with some of my guys at the Giants about this because I was thinking about uh Deontay Banks who who played who was a first round pick in the 2023 draft from Maryland for the Giants. and I didn’t see him play a lot. And I was asking my guys there, I said, “Hey, what’s the deal with Banks? Is he hurt? Is he nicked up? What’s the deal?” They go, “No, they they had a open competition and then Cordell Flot number 28 beat him out.” So, and me personally, I think that’s kind of a win for the Dallas Cowboys right there. I I think with I think Banks is one of these guys I think he can play some sticky coverage. I think he can he’s a little bit of a gambler in the way he plays, but I felt like that man for man coverage-wise, he was he was he was solid, you know? I mean, it wasn’t probably what they thought of as a first round pick, but watching him play the quickness and how he competes and all that. I’ve seen Flock play a bunch. I have. And this is going to be the guy I think you go after in this football game. Waldo. Yeah. The number he’s wears number 28. And there’s separation to his game. You could see there were they were h he was having problems. We talked about inb breaking routes, the incut routes, things like that. He is just not good enough at trailing and and making those plays. Things on the outside if you throw right at him, you know, tends to come forward and have it. But if you he has to carry anything inside, it is a real problem for him. I’m surprised that he that he won that job. But that my Giants guys are saying, “Yeah, it was an open competition.” And here we are. I think on the other side, Paulsonbo, I I think that when you when you look at him, he’s a guy that’s going to and last week in the game, he traveled with Terry McLaren. And I wonder if in fact that they’re going to how much how much uh of that like that man coverage, how much traveling are they going to want to do? Are they going to want to travel him with CD? Are they going to travel maybe with Pickins a little bit? Or are they gonna find a way to play some zone? I amazed my man Vot Lombardi this morning telling him that when when uh when uh CD Lamb plays against uh off coverage, he’s not as good a receiver. The numbers, the metrics, all that stuff just is is completely different for him. When he faces man coverage or faces a guy traveling with him, he tends to have better numbers as a receiver. the off coverage stuff it where on the opposite of that Pickkins is much better when you give him when he plays off he’s averaging almost nine yards of reception when it you know when it when he plays off coverage against him. So it’s kind of funny the Giants got to kind of figure out how they want to handle uh both these guys but they they like to rotate their corners and uh and and try and get everybody an opportunity and I’m sure you’ll see a lot of different coverages from them. Brian, who would you say is better, Corder Flat or um our guy uh from last week, Jackson? Oh, Dory Jackson. I would I would say, man, and you know, my my guy Flats from LSU, so I Yeah, don’t worry about that. It matters to him. It matters to him. I I I think that me personally, I think that you attack this guy. I think I think Flat is I think he’s I think he’s a little bit more I don’t think he’s as quick as Jackson is, but but playing off Jackson didn’t look like he was really driving on the ball. There were a couple times I guess he made plays and stuff like that. He drove on one on an inside cut that was a little bit better, but Flat’s capable doing I just think you you see more separation than him playing than you do the other guy. I think Flat is a much worse corner. I’ve seen every Cowboy take turns beating up on Flat and the Cowboys know how to attack Flat. So, uh, if Pollson is going to be a guy that’s going to run around, let’s say he travels with, uh, Pickkins or something like that, then cool. You got Flat versus CD. Good luck to you. Um, I think I Paul and Debo shouldn’t travel this week. If I had to imagine the Giants maybe had confidence that Terry was the only receiver that can give you wide receiver type problems. Debo is a is a running back playing receiver, so maybe you feel better with your, you know, uh, second guys kind of dealing with him. Uh the Cowboys are a totally different uh type of deal. You know, you got two outside guys and then you have the interior mess going on there. I don’t think that they’re going to travel to Debo. I think they’re going to keep on on one side and they’re just going to have to maybe shade coverage to the opposite side that uh Paulson is is not on. Uh Drew Phillips, we uh Drew Phillips, we were a big big fan of him in draft land. U he know nickel guy. He seems to be like their second best corner, but um I didn’t really see him involved all that much, Brian. talking about the rotation, you know, so maybe he just wasn’t on the field, but when he was there, I did say he’s going to play the slot and you got to worry about him as a blitzer. I mean, there’s a couple of times where if they if you play condensed formation and there’s going to be a slot blitz, you know, uh I think that Shane Bowen, the the the defensive coordinator for the Giants, has to kind of figure I don’t think he can let Dak Prescott sit in the pocket and make throws. He’s got to be worried. he has to feel like that his pass rush can get home even though against the uh the Eagles that you know they the offensive line did a nice job and Dax showing the mobility that he’s able to do. So the the how how he handles this how he handles the coverage aspect I think Phillips could be a guy if you’re going to see blitzers in this from the secondary I think Phillips from the slot would be that guy. Talk to me about Go ahead. Sorry. Just uh one more thing that I was um shocked about, Brian, is on paper Tyler Nuben and um they’re and um Holland, right? Yeah. Like they’re both good corners, but just kind of pardon me, safety, safety, pardon me. They’re they’re both good safeties, but watching the film, if you got bad corners, it kind of makes your safeties bad also, right? So, u you know, Nuben was a guy that I thought would be a really good rundown guy. Like he’ll come up and tackle because that’s what he did in college, Brian. We were watching. Uh, but you know, Nuben was kind of a non just a non-factor out there and I was led down a little bit by that, Brian. So, I mean, if you’re going to be throwing the ball like at him, like I think he’s a guy that you can also um u beat. Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see with the situation too with him and Holland. Looked like they had some communication problems in that game against the Commanders. So, maybe the Cowboys can take it. May these guys probably just, you know, and and not being on the same page for some of the stuff. There were some balls that were caught and those guys kind of looked at each other like, was that your guy or was that my guy? So maybe they’re still trying to work through some things there too. This flats guy. You mentioned the safeties guy for sure. How do the safeties and the linebackers match up with this tight end room? Because I do think the tight ends are a place where uh that becomes a bit of a matchup for the for the Cowboys. They want to be able to use those tight ends. They certainly want to be able to use them up the seam of the field. How does that match up from the standpoint of what what the Giants can do with their linebackers and safeties? Micah McFaden is out. So their guy Darius Mousalo is there. I’m trying to go find Mousalo and see if a really good match up. struggle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Him and him just running around trying to find somebody in open space is a is it’s terrible for them. So if it’s me, this Jake Ferguson, like go find him. Turpin. And that’s the thing about Turpin is you can move him all over the place. Put Put him in the back field and if make him have to cover and if you have if you happen to catch him in man, then that’s a touchdown for for Dallas for sure. Yeah. So talk about um I think Vaj from the standpoint of the Cowboys, where do you see a matchup? Give me a matchup of this Cowboy skill player versus this player. This is where I’m going to exploit. This is gonna this is going to be my target for this game. This was going to be so fun, Derek. We going to run out there and find wherever the hell Flot is. Or if Deontay Banks as well, you know, you know, just in case somebody’s listening, well, what if Flat got whooped so bad that they benched him and and put Banks out there? There’s history of the Cowboys beating the hell out of Banks, too. So, you’re finding B and honestly Paul Nadibbo isn’t so great that you’re going away from him or or even um uh Drew um Phillips, right? You you you really can do whatever you want to do here, but the the key matchup there if you just ask for like a one-on-one find tight end versus Darius Mousal or just finding whatever wide receiver is is uh line up against Flat or or uh Banks and protect the front. If you protect the front, then now you can you can do some good against this second. Tyler Gayton versus uh Brian Burns will be a fantastic match up to watch. If you can win now and I think you’re going to have a fantastic day throwing the football. How much do you guys trust what you saw last week? Because again, I think the offensive line played really well last week in protecting Dak. There were some times he had some pressure, but by and large I thought they protected him pretty well. How much do you trust that now going into this week where you may be facing better edges uh than you faced last week? Yeah, that’s I was going to ask you V. Do you feel like that the the Giants pass rush is better than what you saw in Philadelphia? Brian, listen man. I’ve seen four deal with Cam Cam Irving, Cam Fleming. Oh yeah. Uh Ty and Seki. Like he knows how to deal with trying to call those dudes out. Shouts out to him, man. They don’t work here no more. Uh I’ve seen Dak navigate left tackle nonsense for a long time. I think he’ll be fine. What you don’t want is Dex Lawrence whooping whoever in the middle and and that’s a strength of getting up on his face. That’s the strength of your of your of your line right there. we felt like going into the the Philadelphia game that that was going to be a strength even, you know, even with guys getting knocked out of the game. But I I feel like that they match up pretty well against the the Giants inside, too. Plus also too, you know, um uh you know, pass rush in the first quarter is much different than having to deal with the run game and then pass rushing us in the third quarter, you know. So, if the Cowboys play a very balanced attack, I don’t even think the pass rush should be that that terrible. Yeah. You mentioned uh a little bit earlier, you mentioned the running backs. How would you guys divvy up running back this week knowing that uh that again you had the fumble from Sanders last week. Uh blue was inactive last week. How would you kind of manage that running back position? How would you go into this game thinking you’re going to use utilize the different talents that you have at running back? Miles Sanders had four carries. Brian Bratis, it’s tough to say take four carries away from the man. It’s it’s four carries. give him one carry and see he didn’t get 49 yards. He did get 49 yards. I’m like he got caught. Uh but you know if if it’s me I mean Brian like do you They’re going to need both. I think they’re going to need both. I’m I’m going into this game trying to run the football and wear these guys down. Should you should you pass less to get Williams more carries cuz Williams got 15 carries, right? Would you want that number to be like 18? I proved the Giants have got to prove to me that they could stop the run, especially on the edge if you run right at him. And and I’m I’m not saying, hey, it’s make a living at a running inside against Lawrence. I’m saying run at these edges and kind of if they’re going to jump around and try and not play square and and and take people on. I’m going to see if if if uh Span Ford and and those tackles and these guys could get some push. I’m going to see Booker and these guys. I’m I’m I you’re going to need Sanders in this game because I think it’s going to be hand the ball to Williams, get some positivity out of that, hand the ball to Sanders when needs be. Sanders might actually double his carries in this football game is what it’ll happen. So, you’re still not expecting to see blue? I don’t think so. Now, Brian, let me just ask you this. What if right now? I’m not. Now, Brian, what if number nine lines up at running back and he’s like your bursty fast running back? That’s where I think they’re going to go with there. Yeah, I think that’s to me handing him the ball is kind of like a It’s like a six, seven yard gain. Every time. So, yeah, I I think I’m doing more of that. Not as a gadget sideways, just as a back field. Yeah, we saw that. We’ve seen that in training camp. Just he lines up as a back, they hand it to him, and he makes a cut. That’s explosive the hole. My hope is that they continue to to integrate him even more into the offense. We saw it last week. We saw it all throughout training camp. Uh I want to see more. I want to see him getting more opportunities on the offensive side of the ball uh to make plays because I do think he is a player that creates a ton of matchup problems for the opponent. Well, we will figure it out eventually. I will. He’s got he’s he’s a rookie. As long as he’s ready by like week nine or something, we won’t even be worried about this. Absolutely. All right, that’s a wrap. We appreciate you guys joining us. We’ll be back on tomorrow. We’ll wrap this thing up. Let you know what we think is going to happen this week. Cowboys versus Giants. It’s Sunday afternoon game. Uh till then, Roach Lombardi, Brian Bis, and Amber Garcia. I’m Dererick Eagle. This has been The Break live on dallascowboys.com radio. This has been a production of DallasCowboys.com and the DallasCowboys Football Club. How about you, Cowboys? [Music]

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