What Do The Cowboys Need To Address? | Cowboys Break

What Do The Cowboys Need To Address? | Cowboys Break

The following is a production of DallasCowboys.com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. How about you go to Let’s go. 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 Bris, Vach Lombardi, and Derek Eagleton. It’s Wednesday, October 15th, 2025, season 21, episode number 58. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break 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. TY at lg.com Evo. All right, let’s talk. We got a lot to get into today. Cowboys versus Commanders. That’s coming up this Sunday. Uh we’ll start getting you ready uh for that matchup. We will dive in the second segment into the Washington offense versus this Dallas defense that has been so maligned and so talked about uh everywhere, including here on the break over the last two days. So, we’ll talk a little bit about that matchup. Uh, I want to start though first today. Um, I’m gonna give you guys an opportunity here. Um, if you were named the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Kenneth Murray, and you are Stop it. and you are heading into week seven of the Brian back. Yes. Bring Brian. That’s first move. We need Brian on our our scouting staff. Um, and and you have and you are now faced with Okay. basically exactly where the Cowboys are right now. Yeah, you you have a meeting here in 30 minutes to to address the team. What are you telling them? How are you getting them away from what happened last week and getting them mentally prepared for stepping into this next challenge based on the whole landscape of the NFC East and the landscape of the NFL? Vach, I’ll start with you. Okay. You looking for some motivation? I thought we was going a different direction. By the way, motivation can go both ways. Sometimes motivation is beating them over the head. Like you just got to figure out what you think is best for your team. 100%. uh fellas and and Ambar uh we have the number one offense in the whole league, the best one. It puts up all the best points, all the numbers, all the run game stuff is up here versus all the opponents. It ain’t like we just putting up points against the worst team. We putting up points against the best teams and CD Lamb comes back next week. So, I can only imagine that the offense gets a little better. We’ve lost most of these games by three points, one possession. If it’s time to throw crap at the wall, it’s time to throw crap at the wall to figure out any little small changes. If we want to live in this world where we’re going to compete and we’re gonna live by that and the best man is going to win, I’m looking for anybody that’s ready to rise to the occasion. Perion Winfrey, if you could take somebody’s job, it’s yours. Kaylin Carson, if you could take somebody’s job, knock yourself out, player. I’m looking to get a little bit better. This is my room. Jerry Jones got a whole another room. So, I don’t know if he going to bring anybody in because I’m not in charge of the money. If I’m only going to talk about the players that we have here and I can only assume that no new help is coming, everybody gets a shot because we trying to get a little bit better every day and we got to live by that and seniority is not going to be the way to go. Ken Murray, you going to point that right at him? Sam Williams, too. Okay. Ken ain’t tweeting. Sam tweeting. That upset me, but but whatever. Go ahead. It upset a lot of people. Dressing the team here, right? Yes, we’re dressing the team. Why you mfers trying to get talk? Trying to get me fired. Is that what you said? Yeah. Why you mfers trying to get me fired? Wow. I’m a first year head coach. Caught me off guard. I’m a first year head coach in this thing and I am doing everything I can to make sure that you guys play at a very high level. Obviously things aren’t sinking in. I don’t know if it’s you. I don’t know if it’s me right now. But we have to figure this out. We have to put everything behind us that’s happened so far. Do we have to forget about it? No. But we got to try. We got to try and put this thing behind us. There are not players. There are not going to be any former Michael Urban or Troy Aman’s or EMTT Smiths or Harvey Martins that are come walking through that door. It’s about us right now. It is about us. If you guys want to go out and continue to put bad film out there and get embarrassed playing football every Sunday, then we’re going to do that. But I promise you, this owner, he will get rid of all of us. Okay? So, we have to kind of circle the wagons here and look at each other and say, “Listen, we’re responsible for each other here.” But the minute that we don’t focus on each other and focus on winning games, we’re going to be playing somewhere else. We’re all going to be doing something else. This division’s for the taking right now. You’ve seen what happened. You’ve already faced Philadelphia. You understand that challenge. You’re about to face the Commanders. We got to go out there and get a win. We just got to we got to make sure that we get a win this week and then we’ll focus on the following week. I’ve told you all along that it’s one championship fight at a time. We’ve we we’ve got our ass knocked out plenty. We need to do something right now to change our fortunes. If we don’t, we’re all going to be doing something else here later on. Let me tell you why Brian’s message is so much better than mine. because he’s been in them rooms before when it’s when it’s been like that and people bsing around, pee footing around or whatever, you know what I mean? So he he got that from the from the spirit. I was really just looking at it from like, “Hey players, let’s play better.” Brian like, “Hey man, my rent dude, dog, you know what I mean? Like Brian, that’s that’s No, if you want if you want to if you guys want to keep playing like crap, I assume and and I keep and I keep coaching like crap, we’re all going to be somewhere else. This is our livelihoods. We got to take some pride in our livelihoods right now. We got embarrassed in Carolina. We got run on. We had a chance in the final drive to to maybe change the game. We didn’t do that. Yeah. We are not playing well enough to win games here. And the minute that we the minute that we continue to do that or continue to play in that way, we’re all going to be doing something else. Think about that. Think about that. You want to be doing something else at the end of this the season. Not doing here. Yeah, just keep playing like you are right now and we’ll all be doing something else. See, I have a different approach, love. No, cuz I we’re not sitting in there hearing hearing this speech and then being all kumbaya. Yeah. Nah, we You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. So, what I’m doing is I’m printing out a questionnaire. I’m handing it out to all the defensive players. What? Huh? You gonna make them do homework? Yeah. When you’re playing like that. Yeah. What do you mean? What are you getting for? He going to make them boy take a quiz. Let me finish the opposite direction. You want Kenn? Yes. Yes. Okay. Go ahead. Yes. You’re going to fill out a questionnaire. You’re going to tell me what you think the problems are and I will gather all that information. From that, I will pull what I think needs to be addressed. We will then meet all together and express our feelings. Our what? express the problems that are currently seeing happening on the field because I do believe it is very different watching from the sideline versus you being on the field in you know in there playing it and actually living it. So I want to hear from each player’s mouth what they think is the problem exactly what do you think is happening? Why are you not performing the way that you should be? Is there a lack of miscommunication? Is this happening? What are we doing? is a scheme. What I want to hear your thoughts and opinions and then process that and then see how we can start changing things and catering because we can all agree or most of us can agree that some of these players we have seen them play better in the past and it’s just not happening right now. So yeah, I’m I want to hear the players from the actual players mouth what they think is the problem. See, I can tell Amber, I’ve been to therapy and all that, and that’s very that’s a very I actually haven’t, but it is good for you. I’ve It’s been on my to-do list since your tears. Me, too. Yes, you know, it’s been very effective. Let me just ask you this therapy, right? I actually got two one of the followup. Okay, so what if you go to some rand, right? Let’s say you go to Sam and Sam says, “Well, Amber, I don’t I don’t think it’s a problem. I just think I just need to do a little better.” What if he says that to you? Then I go into Brian’s approach. Next year, MFA, you’re gone. Yeah. Can I Can I get Can I interject right there? Because that that actually picks up right where I think I would go with this team. Poor. I would tell them mental mistakes will no longer be tolerated. That simple. On every play, know your job. Do your job. Every single play. When you make a mistake mentally, there will be consequences. And I will point to the fact that that front office over there, they got four first round picks over the next two years. They got a ton of cap space. If you want to continue to be here and play for the Dallas Cowboys, the expectation is you will know your job and you will do your job. If it’s a situation where you knew where to go, you tried everything to get there and you couldn’t get there, we can work with you. We can develop that. We can try to get better there. But the mental mistakes, they won’t happen anymore. From now on, there will be consequences. Hey boss, I’d like to ask you a question. A lot of happening now. Where do you come in in all this? Where by the way mistakes mistakes of us, but where where do you see yourself coming in all this? Because I’m talking to everybody. I kind of feel like there’s some things that you guys haven’t done on your end. I’m talking to everybody in the room, including the coaches. your your responsibility your responsibility is to do your job and know your job. So if if you are what if I feel like you’re not teaching us your job that’s the point that is a question you’re not being set up for success. But to me, that’s the question of if if it’s a mental mistake because you knew what you’re supposed to, that’s on you. If it’s a situation where you didn’t know because this wasn’t clear, this wasn’t made clear what your responsibilities were. And by the way, that goes both ways during the week when you’re going through the different assignments and what you’re going to see and what you should be doing on each of those plays. If you’re not raising your hand to say, “Coach, I don’t quite understand what my responsibilities are here,” then that’s on you. If you did raise your hand and you didn’t get a good answer and you’re not being taught, that’s on the coach. So So again, my point is everybody is going to be held accountable and and and Shotti has said it multiple times, accountability is important. So now and and we’ve seen him do it some with the players. Now it needs to go all the way like I think everybody in that room has to be accountable because as you said, your job’s on the line. Everybody’s job’s on the line when you This is a this is a success uh dictated business. you keep a job because of your success. And and so I would just reiterate to the guys like, “Hey man, we all want to be here. We all want to be doing this professionally. We better step up and we better we better make sure that if things aren’t getting done, they’re not getting done because we’re making mental mistakes.” If they cleaned up just the mental mistakes, the number of times they have bust, if they just clear up that part, they would be a ton better than they are defensively in my opinion right now. Yeah. Coach, what’s the worst reprimand? And I’m gonna use names because it’s just, you know, just an example. If like Ken Murray who’s not mentally there, but he trying real hard versus Sam who’s in the right place, but he’s still getting whooped anyway. Like which one gets reprimanded? Say again for me. Ken Murray who gets misdirected, maybe get lost with the processing, but the effort’s not an issue. He’s trying real hard. He’s putting in the effort. He’s not, you know, you know, loafing or anything. He’s just going the wrong way. Sam, wait. But but why is he going the wrong way? because because he he doesn’t know where he’s supposed to be or because cuz I think that’s a part of that matters for sure. That’s that’s I guess that’s the point of what I would be stressing as the coach is know what you’re supposed to do. So does and if you know what you’re supposed to do and you can’t get there then that’s one thing and we’ll have to work with you and we’ll try to see if we can keep developing the front office bringing in back players. But by the way maybe maybe you end up getting replaced because you just can’t do it. But my point is, I got a little more leeway for the person that knows their job cuz they’ve studied and they’re ready for it. They just may not be able to give me that, right? Let me ask you this. Does this fall on you because Ken Murray is the green dot guy with all the responsibility and he’s thinking and lining everybody up. Would it be on you to say, “Okay, well, Ken, I put too much on your plate.” Let me put you in this spot, maybe a Sam or something where you’re just playing downhill as opposed to Green D. How I would look at that again, two points. I think it it’s yes, it’s on the coaching to understand like where they should their players. I also think the players have to be honest with themselves. If they’re trying to do the best that they can do and they’re like, “Right now, coach, you’re asking this, this, this, and quite frankly, I can’t give you this. I can give you these other two. I can’t give you this.” I think that goes both ways. I think when you’re dealing manto man, when you’re dealing adult to adult, like everybody has to be accountable to the communication. You know, I can’t I can’t help you as a leader. I can’t help a person that I’m leading if they aren’t giving me feedback that what I’m asking of them may be beyond their their abilities, right? I it it would take me a lot less time to diagnose that than them just telling me, “Hey, coach, this is something that’s a problem for me. This is something I’m having a hard time understanding or hard time executing.” Coach, you think we have more physical problems or mental problems on this thing? Yeah. Depends on the player. I guess I’m asking I’m asking as a team. I’m asking I’m asking for I’m asking for all my brothers here in the auditorium. I’m asking you. Do you feel like we have more mental problems or more physical problems? Probably more physical, but the mental leads to bigger plays like to to bigger whoopings on the That’s a good way to put it. But I don’t know if I I don’t know if I have a good handle on what’s more because they have a lot of both. Like you will see a lot of plays where there’s just bust. You’ll also see some plays where it’s just like this guy just couldn’t get off a block. I I go back to the the I think it was the first play of the game. uh defensively where Marshon Neland was five yards got just driven back five yards. Like that’s just a come on man. You you can’t let a tight end get you five yards off the line of scrimmage, right? So I think it’s I think it’s both. I don’t know that I know the percentage. Obviously the coach does. He he studies it. I don’t know that I know the percentage of one versus the other. I like what you’re doing, but I think you need to pin them down on one or the other. I really do. And which do you think is the bigger problem for them? I think the physical part of it is really bad. I think I think there’s I think there’s too many times where they physically get beat up too much. I think the the bus the Are you talking just just specifically on the defense? Yeah, on the Well, you can off with offense. Well, the offense the offense that we we talk about my famous statement of Brown uh uh Brown uh the law firm. Yeah, the law firm Robinson Brown Robinson Brown Robinson Brown the law firm. They kicked your ass. Yeah, they kicked your ass up front and the defense you got your ass kicked too, you know. But is that also is that also a problem? I don’t know if it’s a mental error with guys being open. I I just are there are there communications? Is it like are we trying to do I don’t know how more simple it could be to play cover three. I I don’t know. Or too deep. I don’t know. I mean it it goes back to like little tight football. Hey, we’re playing this is what we’re going to play. Yeah. You know, I I think the thing that bothers me the most about this team is physically getting handled. Yeah, that bothers me because there’s going to be mental mistakes, but physically getting beat up by somebody. That’s a little bit of some pride right there, but that’s ability, too. You know, I don’t think they have enough, and I’m not saying they don’t have pride. I’m just saying they physically on defense do not match up well enough. They just don’t. real fast. Coach uh coach Ambar, do you think that if you go to some of these players and say, “Hey, you know, we all g look we all we’re fighting for this job.” Okay, curious. Look, let’s No, we all holding hands. Kumbaya, we you know, eating. I don’t like his approach. Me neither. So, listen. If you if you if you go to these players, I’m not a coach. EMF. That’s what we don’t. They’re trying to get us fired, guys. They’re They’re trying to You’re trying to get me fired. I’m I got to take a break. I’m not helping. We’re all going to be unemployed next. Yeah, we’re all going to be unemployed because of you guys. Real fact. Real fact. Real fact. So, uh, so when we holding hands in therapy and you and you go to these guys, we’re not holding hands. Not holding. Okay. So, we’re not doing therapy for real. So, when you go to these guys and say, “Hey, write down what you think the issue is.” Do you think that’ll lead to fingerpointing in the locker room and maybe that’ll kind of disjoint everything a little bit? Possibly. Well, that’s why the cuz how many people going to go is Kenny fault, is Sam fault, and then we all find out that we all voting for That’s why there’s a process. That’s why the questionnaire was put in place first where you receive that and then from that you start taking out the information that you seem adequate and processing that and then bring it in. Everybody blaming Sam. Okay. Bring it bring it in there. And I’m not saying hey let’s start fingerpointing because we can finger point all you want. Everybody everyone’s getting it finger pointed at themselves because everybody no one has executed a perfect game here for the Cowboys. So yeah, we can fingerpoint all you want, but it’s like, are you committed? My thing is, are you bought in to this system or are you not? Because that’s where I think the lack of success comes from. Aside from execution, if you’re not mentally, and going back to the mental aspect of it, if you’re not mentally bought into this and trusting what your teammates are doing and trusting that, hey, this guy, he’s going to be taking care of that other guy over there. you’re we’re all in the place that we’re supposed to be or me trusting that the coach is calling the right place. Sure. You’re not going to be committed committed. So that’s why I think and I find value into listening what from the players voice themselves. What do you think is the problem? What do you feel that you’re not like we’re not having the success? Oh yeah, we have to go to break. We got to take a break. We we way over. Trey gonna have a long I actually thought I thought that was gonna take about five minutes, but we got I see we got I see we got some coaches in or want to be coaches in the room. Once upon a time I did. You know I got paperwork. Good stuff. And Brian I think that was some coming out. He was like man y’all trying to get me fired. Look Dave, right, Dave? We Brian like I’ve been waiting for this opportunity. Let’s go. All right. Um first need to pick up your game. We are going to take our first breakach. We’re going to come back. We’re going to talk about the Washington offense versus the Dallas defense. We’ll be back. Cowboys.com radio. 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. If you shout, “How about them Cowboys?” You have that undeniable passion that’s the heart of Cowboys Nation. 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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. Here’s your wine. Wow. Isn’t it nice not having to ask? We think so. That’s why if there’s a network interruption, AT&T will proactively credit you for a full day of service, guaranteed. Credit for fiber downtime lasting 20 minutes or more, or for wireless downtime lasting 60 minutes or more, caused by a single single sing incident impacting 10 or more towers. Restrictions and exclusions apply. See at.com/g guarantee for details. Back to the break. Choose perfection, choose LG OLED Evo. Check out the best TV at lg.com. Welcome back. Second segment of the break live from SWBC mortgage studios at the star. segments brought to you by blockchain.com. All right, let’s go inside ops. Uh, head coach of the Washington Commanders is Dan Quinn. He was 12 and five last season, his first season as head coach with the Commanders. He is now three and three on the 2025 season. My first question for you guys before we start talking specifically about the offense is just as a team, do you get the sense that this team has regressed a little bit back to the mean? Last year, you know, you can sometimes see when a new coach comes in, they get out to a hot start. They had a really great season last year. This year, they’re at 500. What do you think has happened to them? I want to say quarterback play, but uh you know, Marcus Mariota came in and did fine. Uh but I do think that when Jaden is in there, like that year two thing matters. So, uh sometimes your talent catches up to your newness, you know? So maybe like that’s a thing like if if Dante Fowler I mean not D I’m up here mad at Dante if Doris Armstrong right is one of your guys you know I had a feeling that okay well he’s he’s got nine sacks because it’s it’s new it’s fresh I mean some of those guys have some some decent rollover like you know he’s he’s doing fine this year u Vaughan is playing like a old man but he’s still solid your linebacker what’s our guy Wagner’s doing fine for old man but I just think that the offense has been on film for a year so they got to work a little bit harder to push it uh to Daniels’s credit, uh, Jaden Daniels, he’s kind of handled that pretty well. Like, he’s not the knock it out guy that he was last year, but he’s still playing some decent football. He’s the second best quarterback that you’ve played this year. So, um, shouts out to him. I think the offense overall though does not have the same elements that it’s had last year. And and you talk about with Daniels and his ability to use his legs. I think that’s something when he got banged up, he came back against uh the the Chargers in week five and then they’ve had some designed runs. He was him and you remember him and Lamar Jackson last year. Designed run, quarterback runs, stuff like that. Ability to get out of the pocket and run and just design runs. If you go back and look at and study him, only one yard on five carries. I don’t think they’re I don’t think uh the I don’t think the coaching staff is like totally committed to. Now, we’ll see this week. Maybe he’s feeling better. You know, there was a time there where he was struggling with remember I think it was oblique or ribs last year and they weren’t really doing stuff. they were kind of just babying him along the way and so maybe this is an opportunity now they’ve kind of like getting him back and they’re like okay we’re going to just baby him a little bit and then we’ll let him get back to being a football player but they’ve they’ve teams have kind of figured out how to play these guys a little bit when it comes to like their RPO stuff the and the quarterback not running as much as he’s done in the past. So it’s still you know they they’ve dealt also too with Terry McLaren one of their best players not playing for several weeks. So there’s there’s some things that just uh offensively that have been that have limited how they’ve how they’ve been able to play. Yeah. And I think exactly what you guys said. I mean, yeah, you can find success in the s surprise factor, but once you put enough tape on there and people start watching uh other teams start watching film and really breaking down and finding your weaknesses, that’s where you can struggle. And I think I mean the the commanders they’ve struggled to be to find the right consistency and they’re just kind of I mean right now they stand at three and three. So it’s I but regardless and we’re about to break that them down. I there’s still a team that is it’s not going to be just like oh it they still have a lot of players that are very very capable of you know making big plays and very athletic. So they’re definitely a a what’s a what’s that word? I can’t I can’t think of the word. No I can’t even think of the word. Um, former. No, very like you never know what you’re going to get. Sneaky. Sneaky. They can be a very sneaky team. Jacqueline Hyde. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Two face. All right. There you go. Thank you. All right. This offense, this offense is led by Cliff Kingsberry, the offensive coordinator. Uh, tell me as you break down this team, I guess start by telling me how you would characterize his offense from a scheme standpoint and then start telling me a little bit more about what these these players on this team are capable of doing. College, you know, college, if you look at uh what the college college like I would, you know, maybe uh if you look at what some of the coaches have have done like some of the better coaches is that they play really tight and that’s to get you know, fast guys on the outside. CL, you know, Cliff is going opposite like the old school college stuff to where we’re gonna widen everything out so that there’s more room to navigate on the inside so that you can run the ball easier, crossing routes over the middle, whatever you want to do there. Uh, and that’s kind of how Jaden Daniels gets down. You know, I had the thought that maybe with the knee injury, he he wouldn’t be running as much. Uh, but he’s going to be running like not, you know, not like Reed option or anything like that, but he’s going to run to roll out or um, you know, prolong the play, get away, you know, get away from the rush, get the ball downfield. At the end of the day, I think they want to throw. They they they want to run the football. They want to be a running football, but just like all these other offenses, they get caught up in the passing game stuff and and if the passing game is there, like it most likely will be versus Dallas, I I think they’re going to opt to throw more. Uh the difference I’ll say this, Carolina, like to their DNA, they they’re a run team. They don’t have like they don’t have a choice to try to be a pass team or they’re getting their own way being a pass team. They’re going to run the football. Uh Washington is a little more balanced, but they’ll end up throwing the football if the run game is not there. Yeah. The thing that Dallas has to worry about this week is the no huddle attack from the Commanders. This team does it more than anybody in the National Football League and and really if you look at the last say 10 years or so, they they’ve just they’ve they’ve embraced that and that’s a little bit of that college element that Vach was talking about what they want to do. He was mentioning about the way they spread you out and they get 11 personnel and they’ve got a running back that’s very capable. averaging almost seven yards a carry and Krosky Merritt when it comes to running the football of 11 personnel that’s the three wide receivers one back you know they’ll get into some heavy formations they like some jumbo formation stuff there’s you go back and you watch that when they when they play and they they bring in the extra linemen or the extra tight ends and and stuff you’re going to get run now there might be a tendency breaker Dallas knows coming in we get jumbo we’re going to get run then maybe there’s some play action off that so you got to be very mindful as we get to close to being halfway. Teams kind of have enough film out there where you can kind of gauge who they are, but there might be some tendency breakers. We saw where uh last week that there’s they’re a screen team and now all of a sudden you throw the ball, you fake the screen to the outside, you set the blockers free and now you got guys up the field running by themselves. So these are the kinds of things that uh that you can get with Cliff Kingsbury. Very creative running the football. very similar to how Dallas runs the football when it looks at uh that the the down blocks and then the pullers and stuff. You get pulling with the tight ends, the the the you get, you know, like the old counter trace, you get the backside guard and tackle both pulling. So, there’s a lot of things that they do running the ball to really try and get it out on the edge. So, you got to be ready to go out there. They’re going to take the ball at your corner. They’re going to try and take the ball at your defensive end and they’re going to try and make your safety have to play in this game and the linebacker. So, it’s going to be up to the Cowboys to have to deal with a no huddle attack. How are you going to substitute? You know, Dallas likes to keep fresh bodies on the field, especially defensive line. This could be a problem of how quickly they’re going to have to substitute in this game. Let’s go ahead and take our second break. When we come back, I want you guys to zero in a little a little for me on this receiving core. Got some interesting names. Some guys have been out. Not sure if they’ll be back this week, but definitely some interesting names from the standpoint of how Dallas can match up. We’ll do that when we come back. This is DallasCowboys.com radio. Hey, I’m home. Hey, Mom. Before you ask, I’ve done my homework and the dishwasher’s unloaded. Nice. Hey, can you Hey, hun. Yes, I’ve got the finale ready to play. Here’s your wine. Wow. Isn’t it nice not having to ask? We think so. 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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 Luc Casey. Shop the collection today at the Luc Casey store at the Star in Fris or online at lucasey.com. Luc Casey, the official boot of the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Back to the break. AT&T connecting changes everything. Welcome back. This is the final segment of the break live from SWBC Morgan Studios. At the start, we’re talking about the Washington offense versus the Dallas defense. Uh I want to talk about the receiving core. Um and actually the receivers, tight end. I think this is a really good group. Uh Terry McLaren, uh Debo Samuel, Luke McCaffrey, Zack Z. Where would you guys rank these guys relative to the the groups that we’ve that that the Cowboys have seen, I guess, to this point with regards to their abilities to get open and their abilities to make plays? So, you know, just by the by the players is looking like right after Philly, I think Jaylen Herz is bad. So, we really we didn’t even get a good chance to see what that even looks like. But, I think that uh Daniels will probably use his guys better than than Herz did. But, you’re saying this might be the best passing offense that Dallas More than likely has seen. Yeah. Yeah. I I think to me when you start to just break down I know what you saw firsthand what the Giants could do with with Robinson and Neighbors and that was a matchup Philly really good matchup if you start to talk about this this team has three legitimate guys and if Terry McLaren was playing and you know and V I think you just said that he’s going to practice right we everybody said he’s going to practice this week so we just said that yeah so so here you are I mean you’re going to have to deal with that with and Debo Samuel is playing well The air yards aren’t there for Debo, but that’s kind of what Debo’s game is. It’s throw it underneath and run like hell, you know, because he’s a handful to bring down. Yeah, he’s hard to do. And they’re running they’re running the orbit motions with him. They’re coming all the way around and then looping and handing the ball and he’s he’s doing some of the things they’re not doing as much of the San Francisco stuff, but they’re trying to get him the ball on the edge or get him to him. And he’s done a pretty nice job of stepping up with that. And not a lot of running back stuff. No, not the running back stuff like he like they’d hand him the ball inside and then he would be like he was trying to run between the tackles. I haven’t seen a whole whole lot of that. But uh I I kind of feel like though this is one of the the one of the better receiving groups when you when you look at overall because include McCaffrey in what he’s done. He we he’s he could play in the slot. He could play outside. He’s really good in the red zone. He’s he he’s he’s got three touchdowns. You watch him play and he’s got like not that many catches. So he’s a very very productive receiver when given the opportunity. Well, running good hands, all that stuff. Yeah. All that. It’s really just going to come down to brother. It’s really going to come down to, and this is where we all cry tears, is uh can you get the Daniels? You know, I think, uh, quarterbacks handle pressure differently. I think that he’s on the higher level of quarterbacks handling pressure per the guys that we, you know, we’ve gone against. But if you can get to him, uh, then he’s a guy that’ll kind of hold the ball, run around a little bit. But, uh, if you’re going to get pressure on him, it’s going to be on the right side. Um, Connley, Andrew Wy at right guard is bad, but not the worst. But Josh Connorly, the rookie from Oregon, he’s been giving up the most uh the most problems, pressure, you know, things. It’s all it’s all coming from the right side. But uh like you know, like I always say on me and um Brian’s show, they got a character on the um practice squad named Timothy McKay. If he was at right tackle, I don’t think we getting pressure on him. Like he’ll go have a Pro Bowl day verse edges. That’s just how I feel. this you you’ve got to give the commanders a reason to pass. You know, if I’m if I’m Cliff Kingsbury, I’m going to make you defend sideline to sideline with my running game. I’m gonna I’m gonna see if you I’m going to see if you can play on the edge. I’m going to see if you can fill at safety. I’m going to see if you can tackle at linebacker. I think Matt Reuse is going to have to take some chances. I say that every week and then lo and behold, nothing happens. But you’re going to have to do some things differently in the running game. You’re going to have to move your front. You’re going to have to take some chances. You’re going to have to maybe angle into some strength. You’re going to have to angle away. Try and just guess. They’re going to run the ball on the edge. It’s going to be about it’s going to be how can they get to the ball on the edge. Now, Dallas has shown though they had a problem with defensive tackle in this last game. You know, they mashed they mashed the Carolina mashed that three technique in OSA and then they single block Clark and Clark was on the ground quite a bit. You know, it’s very surprising for the way he played. So, Krosky Merritt, as Vaj told you, if you’re a fan of the draft show, that was one of his favorite backs, and this guy is a legitimate NFL player. You hand him the ball, he is going to get some physical tough yards. Listen, let um I was going to ask real quick, listening to what you guys have been saying and then also looking at what the commanders have done so far, it feels like their offense can really do whatever they choose to do with you or Yeah. against They can pass. There’s a lot of options for them, whatever they want. So, if you if you had to find something positive, sure. Something that could potentially be digs digs. Give me something. If they play man coverage, if they play man coverage, Digs McLaren, he’s done well against him in the past. But if that’s if that and and I’m just she she asked for something positive here. Here I am. I’m I’m I’m I’ve come with hat in hand. I have no other answers, you know. So, let me ask you this question. Do you think that if let’s assume there’s nothing I can hang my hat on despite what the general manager told you about your pass rush? Well, let’s let’s assume for a second that this is a defense that you feel like, hey, I got two really good quarterbacks when I put them in man coverage. I’m going to man up in this game and I’m going to as a part of doing that, I’m going to blitz more. Do you think this team can change its fortunes fortunes by blitzing more or do you just think they’re not Cuz I’ve seen teams before with the Cowboys in past years where you tried to blitz, you’re just not a good blitzing team. Do you think that they are good enough blitzing that if you blitz more, you’ll actually get the results of that? I think Yeah, go ahead. I think the answer is yes. But I said that in in week three. Yeah, I said that in week three when we was having issues, right? And and and you know, people will respond, well, Vash, who’s going to be blitzing? You know, Donovan Wilson’s a really good blitzer historically. Uh you can go get uh you know James has been has been bliss and Leafoul has been a decent blisser. We’re blissing the wrong people like Fluc is bliss and Kenny Murray and Sandborn sometimes. You know what I mean? Like don’t bliss those guys. Bliss the guys that burst and get there quickly or like we’ve been talking about in you know uh offseason Brian take uh take Don as a rocku put him at a linebacker or something and like blitz him as a guy just to be a little more creativity in in kind of what you’re doing is what you’re saying. You could bring slot blitzes and fool this guy. you could bring second his if you look at his passing numbers. The problem is though Carolina got you in second and three all day. If you’re living in second and three or second and two or second in one all day that all these things we’re talking about, it’s not going to matter. Just not. You have to find a way to take them and maybe it’s some of Dallas’s responsibility on offense, you know, maybe it’s responsibility like got to score, got to score, got to score, got to score. You have to maybe to take the commanders out of that of that wanting to run the football. But Carolina was going with you, going with you, going with you by just running the ball. That that’s scary to me right now. Somebody could stay with you running the football and scoring points. Right. With that being said, if you were trying to fix what was going on last week in the running game, knowing you’re facing another formidable opponent when it comes to the better, how do you how do you stop them from running the ball? What could you change about this defense that could stop or at least slow down their running attack? When the Cowboys brought an extra character from from back and put him in the box, you were a little better vers. BR just stopped doing it. Br just didn’t do it no more. The week before you was able to get past Rush by by doing gap exchanges, slants and stunts. Br just stopped doing it. We ain’t do it no more. You know what I’m saying? I think his answers here. We’re just not always going with him. Li foul showed that he can be a a solid blister for you. James Houston showed that he can get you past rush. We we don’t do it. Solomon Thomas is a is a is a pretty good um run defender. What would Vash do? I play Solomon Thomas at edge. He’s done it before. He’s he’s done it for years. Did it in college. The San Fran did it with the Jets. I put him as one of the edges just you know just to be better. If nothing else is help you run. If I know you running if I know you running. If we’re in a clear if we get the third and nine short Solomon go be one tech or go over there. But in a obvious rundown where we know we was we was we was making jokes. I was like, Cowboys are like they they they feel like Rico not getting the ball right here. But we all know Rico’s getting the ball right here. Yeah. Why aren’t we equipping ourselves to to to just be a little I think Perion Winfrey be a fantastic five tech kind of guy. Yeah. Cuz he’s done it before. They’re Oklahoma. They’re the head up nose at times. Listen, I’m talking to the team right now. I’m doing the coach thing right now. I’m saying listen, I’m challenging sick of this. We ain’t said nothing good all day. No, no. I’m I’m I’m just This is what I’m going to do. This is how I’m going to play it. I’m going to stack the spots. I’m not going to let him run the ball. I’m I’m gonna look at I’m gonna look at the I’m look at Bland and I’m gonna look at Diggs. I’m saying listen, you two guys have got a responsibility. We got to find a way to cover the tight end. We got to make it sure that we got Zach’s taken care of. If they get 11 personnel, will you know, Stewart, you’re going to have to take you’re going to have to take McAffrey. We’re going to match up on the outside and do the best we can. But I’m stacking that box. I am making them if if I’m making them not have enough defenders or enough blockers to handle my guys. Now, it might not work. It might not act. But I am going to my best chance is to stack it, keep them from running, take them out of that and just play matchup on the outside, just one-on-one. Get up on them, run with them all day long. If we if we if we show we can do that and it takes them out of running the ball, we’ll do something else. Maybe we can get in third down situation. Maybe we could blitz a little bit. But you you got to take them out of running the football. That’s going to be their number one thing. They vot told you the one thing they want to do is run the football. They’re going to get wide splits and they’re going to run the football. That’s what they do. They the you look at the width of their team of their offensive line, they’re they get bigger splits than anybody else in the league because they do that with the pullers and the and the way that they run. So, you’ve got to figure out, I’m going to challenge the secondary. I’m going to play you man the majority of this game and let’s take our chances. Be aggressive because the one reason you wouldn’t be aggressive is because the big play threat, right? they’ve been throwing the big play over you regardless. So, you might as well put pressure on them with an extra rusher and at least, you know, play play some man coverage. And I will say this, because of the kind of offense that Dallas has, every team that plays them is probably going to look at and say, “If we can run, we’re going to opt to run because that just takes more time off the clock. It forces that offense.” Dallas offense needs to beat them up, too. Yeah. Yeah. But the Bears Bears got after them pretty good, right? But I I just I think that’s going to always be an issue for Dallas. they can’t stop the run. Teams are going to opt to run because that’s a way to be able to keep the Cowboys offense off the field. Uh so they’re going to have to figure that piece out here very very quickly if they want to have some team success. All right, we’re going to take our I’m sorry, we’re done. We’re going to take our home, right? We are done. We’ll be back tomorrow. We’ll dive into the Washington defense versus the Cowboys offense. Till then for Vot Lombardi, Brian Bratis, and Amber Garcia, I’m Dererick Edison. This has been The Break live on dallascowboys.com radio. This has been a production of DallasCowboys.com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. How about you, Cowboys?

Derek Eagleton, Ambar Garcia, Voch Lombardi and Bryan Broaddus discuss latest Dallas Cowboys news and notes on Cowboys Break.

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