There is a Common Theme for Cowboys’ 2025 Season… | Cowboys Break

There is a Common Theme for Cowboys’ 2025 Season… | Cowboys Break

The following is a production of DallasCowboys.com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. How about you? [Music] 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 is Monday, October 13th, 20125, season 21, episode number 56. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We’re live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, presented by LG. LG is the world’s number one OLED TV brand for 11 years in counting. See why at lg.com OLED. Today it is our jobs to walk you through what happened yesterday in Carolina. Cowboys go to Carolina and lose 30-27. Uh there’s a common theme throughout this season. Cowboys play a lot of close games and defense just can’t seem to make stops. It’s not even just make stops at the time they need them. It’s make stops throughout the game. And again yesterday the defense just cannot make stops. They cannot stop uh the running game. We’re going to get into all that. Let’s start first with the story of the game. Let’s go around the table. What do you guys think was the story of the game? Let’s start with you, Vos Lombardi. Your offense is good enough to compete with anybody. But boy, your defense is so bad. You will compete with anybody. Any and everybody. You can have a a a shootout overtime game with the Packers and you’ll look like one of the better teams in the league. And you could flop around with the with the with the Bears, Giants, and um who we just played Panthers there. So yeah, it’s it’s it’s uh it’s unfortunate. It’s unfortunate. I hope we’re not getting to a point to where the the players are huffing and puffing. I think the biggest thing is that uh Pickkins is not crashing out over this. And I think that’s just the best part. He’s cool to ask question. Say Pigis, how you feel? Hey man, we all got to do better, man. We all got to boom boom. We got to help the defense. I think that’s a fantastic start, but boy, it ain’t fair. Carolina did a really good job of killing your run game yesterday and they did it with penetration. And we’ve kind of kind of talked about a little bit of like in the past we have the the with the the guys the backups in there. They did a really nice job, you know, against the Jets. The Dallas is big on their pull game. They’re big on getting guys in space. They’re big on getting double team blocks and pushing and then getting guys to uh you know, blockers to the point of attack. Yesterday they didn’t do a very good job of that. And give Carolina a lot of credit. Carolina won up front because they were able to like take advantage. There were a couple of times there where guys were getting pushed to, you know, thinking like, okay, you’ve got this guy and that guy wasn’t secure. Dallas running the football is always really, really, really good for balance for them. And there was some opportunities yesterday. I think Williams had one of his poor games when it came to some of his vision. I know a lot of focus is going to be on the defense today and that those problems, but Dallas has got to be able to run the football. And yesterday, Carolina did a really good job of of not allowing you to get in your scheme to be able to do that. And a quick aside, Amber, before you go, a quick aside on that, Brian, when you mentioned what they did yesterday and how they tried to what Dallas likes to do, ironically, that’s exactly what we saw from Carolina and Carolina did do a lot of double teams. They were moving guys, a lot of pulling guys. Like they did a lot of the things that you see Dallas typically have success doing and they did them did them even better. Yeah, that that was the thing when you go back and if you just break down Rico Dattle runs. I mean, they they did a really good job of taking advantage of they double teamed your three technique was a smaller guy. They they they single blocked your your bigger one technique. There were a couple times where JT, you know, they were able to turn him a little bit. Your linebackers jumped some gaps. There’s a lot of things you could talk about Dallas’s inability. You just watch that that that but Dallas not running the football I think hurt them a little bit in that game yesterday and it did. I mean we we saw uh something very unusual which is them uh a team stopping Williams in the ways that in the way that they did but at the same time despite that despite some bad plays from Dak which all in all in general he had a really good game. It just came down to certain plays right towards the end of the game. But the de the offense, they did enough. They gave you 27 points on the scoreboard. And the storyline is nothing but this defense. I don’t know how far you’re going to get in the season uh without let’s not get too crazy here. Let me control my mouth. Um process my thoughts. But cuss in Spanish because we’ll never No, no, no. I wasn’t gonna cuss. Uh, you know how to cuss words? I know all I know all those words. No, but I’m not trying to get in trouble. Um, basically what I’m trying to say, you’re not going to get very far playing the defense that you’re playing with because you can say all you want with the offense and they got to carry your team and the but sometimes it’s just not going to be perfect. You can only ask so much of your offense week by week is not sustainable. So your defense in the way that they’re playing, you cannot win. And and remember like this was against the Panthers and they’re not a bad team, but still you got a lot of tough tougher teams that you’re about to face very very soon. So when you see it the display that was showed, it’s very troublesome. Yeah. Concerning. And I don’t know what the the fix is, but something’s got to happen. Did we not know this in week one, week two, week three? I mean, what the defense was? Are we surprised? I mean, now Okay, now everybody pops up. I saw every one of you. I watched every one of you on that screen. When I said that, everybody went ele Everybody went elevated. Can I Can I Can I throw something there because I do think I do think we knew this defense was going to be in trouble. Yes. But they they cam they did bamboozle me a little bit. And here’s how they did it. The first few weeks of the season, like the run the run defense was like all of a sudden teams weren’t running on them. What we found out teams decided, hey, you know what? Do I want to take this week? I don’t want to throw on them. I don’t want to run. I throw. And then what we saw in the last two weeks is teams are like, you know what? I don’t really want to throw on them. I want to run on them. And and now we’re seeing the whole thing right now is not working. It’s just a matter of what the defense because by the way even yesterday, even yesterday when they had so much success on the ground, they still when they wanted to had big success in the passing game. You had the big 34 yard pass to Horn. You had the the touchdown pass to Rico. You had the two touchdown passes to Tedoya McMillan. Like in all those situations, there were busts in the secondary and they were able to get chunk yardage and touchdowns out of it. And and so even when they wanted to throw the ball yesterday, they had success. It’s really just a matter of what the def the opposing offense wants to do. How often did they get him in third down yesterday? Yeah. See, I’m saying they they had what? Five. Watch. Did you tell me they had five blitzes in that game? Five blitzes. Yes, sir. One sack, right? Yes, sir. They never They never They never got They were They were losing on first down. They ran second down. Carolina ran 65 plays. They was on third downs. Yeah. Seven. Come on. Let’s not Let’s not act like we knew this defense wasn’t not any good. To your question though, Brian, it’s just it’s just it’s just that offenses offenses took advantage of throwing the ball because you had no pass rush and your secondary was can’t cover anybody right now. We knew the defense wasn’t great, but boy, I was hoping for like 28th grade hope. I I was Was that a plan? It’s not a plan, Brian. I was looking at some stat and this came in salty. I was looking at a statement. I’m just saying, man, you guys, let’s not act like we knew that. No, it’s not like we were surprised this happened. Nobody’s saying they’re surprised. Everybody’s Everybody’s surprised. I’m surprised it’s this bad. Yes, that’s the bad. Not that it’s bad. It’s that it’s this bad. They only punt it twice. I’m surprised that it’s that bad. I saw this stat from Jaylen Hurst and they told you this run defense was fixed. It really wasn’t fixed. I saw this stat, Brian, and Jaylen Hurst is like the 35th overall quarterback in accuracy, right? Like he’s way past 32. Yeah, I wish they had a defensive number like that. The Cowboys, I said this pre pre-show, the Cowboys are so deep in the 32nd, the worst that if you were simply 31st worst in in defense, Brian, you win two more games, right? If you just give the other team back eight points, you are two games better, Brian. We didn’t think we was going to be deep in the basement of 32. 32 and 31 ain’t close. This this team has shown you defensively 29 to where we at 32 defensively who they are. They’ve shown you this. I think I think it’s gotten worse every week. Keeping the buck with you. I think you go out there week one and AJ Brown and um Smith and them they don’t do all that much. The quarterback the Giants the Giants game should have been the wakeup call for it should have been. It should have been the one that’s the one when a when a broken down veteran quarterback goes out and lights you up. That’s when you needed to know. And then you watched at the end of that game Cam Scataboo run and now Cam Scataboo running over everybody. That that right there. That was it. That was it. That was like, okay, you can’t you’re not going to be good enough. You’re not. And And Derek, you said it pre-show. They were worse yesterday than that, Brian. Pre-show. Yeah. Because they ran the ball down your throat. To your point. So even running the football to me is worse than throwing the football. It’s worse than throwing the football. And there’s nothing you can do about it if you The fact that they ask ask certain players to play coverage is is football criminal. True. And we we’ve been talking about this, but you know, we keep talking about it every week and nothing gets done. So, let’s not act surprised. I don’t work here. I don’t work here. Let’s not act surprised. No, but but again, Brian, they were bad. They’re bad. They’re they’re offensively they’re that yesterday they offensively they got shut down running the football, but what did it do? They found a way to throw the ball. that Carolina got no pressure on you. No pressure on you throwing the ball yesterday. That final drive, why the hell you’re throwing the throwback screen, I have no idea. They can’t cover George Pickkins. Feed his ass the ball in that final drive. Make them have to defend him. Don’t get queued. Don’t you know, you can’t afford negative plays. You just can’t. Then we can agree. I will say my personal surprise comes in the sense that yes, we’ve been seeing this since week one. We’ve been seeing it week after week, but my surprise is where are the changes? Where are the drastic changes? They can’t. Well, they can’t they don’t have they don’t have they can’t they can’t change all the things that they need to change. They can’t they can change some things. Give me give me give me two play calling. So we know. So we know. So we know. Let me finish. I No. I’m I’m saying I’m saying I’m I’m saying Okay. So I’m saying Okay. So Bryce Young terrible against pressure. 65 plays on offense. You only you only you only bliss five times. Give me your guy. Play caller. You can fix. Give me a guy. What guy? Give me a guy. Who you going to who’s going to be your coordinator? Listen. Who? Uh Sorenson. Sorenson. Uh Soren called plays for San Fran. Okay. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t 32 and he wasn’t deep in the 32. White Cotton can call the plays. Anybody that’ll that’ll that’ll bliss and put pressure. Anybody that’ll that’ll uh that’ll uh take Donovan off the roof. Anybody that’ll take anybody that’ll take Murray off the field. Anybody that see Sorry, Murray. Anybody Anybody Anybody that Anybody Anybody that sees him as a player that can How about somebody click How about somebody click over and tell the tell the coordinator that And you want one of those guys to be your defensive coordinator. Anybody that takes anybody that looks at Murray, anybody that looks at Murray and says, “Let me give him a a whole bunch of responsibility.” Take that dude out. They’re the responsible for the the responsible for the roster here, too. Those coaches are responsible for the roster. I asked you guys this question the other day. What are the offensive coaches doing that the defensive coaches aren’t? I can live at 25. I can win. You’re not going to get there. You don’t have players to get to 25. You don’t. and you’re going to make a you’re going to make a bold trade that’s probably not going to help you because you need more than one player. Take your box safety off the roof. And I think that’s a that’s a huge they haven’t shown you six weeks. They haven’t shown you they can do that. That’s why you give me a guy. At the end of the at the end of the day, what they are going to have to do is they’re going to have to realize what they are asking of the players that are currently on this roster is not working. And if that means that they either have to change those guys out to someone else or if that means they’re gonna have to ask those guys to do something different, those are really your only two options at this point. You’re not going to I don’t think you get better necessarily by saying let’s just get rid of the play call and start over like in the middle of season. That’s not going to get you better necessarily. I think if you’re going to get better, you’re going to have to say okay here is what these players can do. Here’s what these players cannot do. And by the way, I’m not going to keep if I’m in their pursuit, I’m not going to keep the saying, well, they’ll get better at it. You’ve had six games. You know, right now what they’ve done and what they have not done. And so, for now, you have to make the assessment based on what I’ve seen through six games. They either can do this or they cannot. And if they cannot, then you’re going to have to either change the personnel or you’re going to have to ask them to do something different. I think it’s that simple. Now, I know that that sounds simple. That’s not easy when you already have the roster constructed and you’ve already been training on this particular thing. Going back to OTAAS, which everybody wasn’t here during OTAAS. So, with all those things being said, now you have to figure that part out. And that’s the that is the challenge for this coaching staff at this point is either change the people or ask them to do something different. The disadvantage we have right now is we don’t know if they’re telling them to do the right things and the players are just not capable of doing it. We don’t know that. But that’s my point. They have to figure that out and they haven’t yet. But based on that, they have Yeah. Right. You’re right. They have not do the things. They continue to make the mistake. Yes. And at this point they have to make a decision. We have seen enough to know they are not able at this point or are not doing what we what we’re asking them to do. So either they’re not capable of doing it or they’re just not doing it. Either way, you got to change something. Either you got to ask them to do something different like a guy like like Donovan. I saw in this last game that they had Donovan down in the in the box early in the game and and and they ran the ball right at him and he was out of the play. Like that’s something he’s supposed to do really well. So I think I think there’s a lot of different issues that are going on right now and there’s not just one. It’s not as simple as saying, “Well, just take Donovan off the rooftop and all of a sudden everything’s going to be better.” Well, Donovan has some responsibility in that too where he’s going to have to play better even when he’s down in the box. And I think there are all those kinds of issues you see throughout the game where guys are out of position. They’re not doing what they’re being asked to do or if what if that’s what they’re being asked to do, then it’s a situation of how are you coordinating this thing? Cuz I saw a lot of time defensive ends are crashing down hard, crashing down hard. There was nobody containing the outside. They’re either asking them to do that, which I’m questioning now who’s doing that, or it’s a situation where they’re doing that and they really should be protecting the edge. Either way, my point is it’s not working right now and they’re going to have to make some change. Something has to change. To your comment, Brian, of like you don’t know if it is something that they’re being told and they’re just not executing. This is where I go back to thinking the opposite in a way because um when you have a collective group, we’re not talking about just one or two players that are just missing assignments. You’re talking about so many players on the defense that that are having trouble executing. So then when something like that happens, who do you turn to look at? The voice in the room, the leader. Yeah. So that that’s where I think it goes back to and the amount of plays that I’ve seen even on social media this morning people put in screenshots and things like that of the formation the scheme of how they were where each player was positioned and you start to question okay because by now by week six now headed into seven you would think you know your players right so all I look at This is the schedule. My time is running out because you keep missing the opportunities of when you get so close to being able to win a football game and you just miss that. You it it’s like the sand slipping through my fingers right now and I’m just like, “Oh my god.” Trying to hold on to it because I don’t want to say, “Oh, another wasted year.” I would rather flu call 20 blitzes and give up a D play or two because they gonna give them up anyway. If you giving up D plays being conservative and safe, be aggressive. I would have rather him look and say, “Hey man, we’re not great at this. Let’s do something different.” Yeah. Go ahead. Like like like we’re we’re we’re not good at this. Let’s do something different. This personnel group ain’t working. Let’s do something different. So when I say move on from flu, I’m not trying to wave a magic wand. I’m saying flu is being stubborn. Like something ain’t happening here. Like something’s not being changed here. So when I’m saying that, you just can’t look at Bryce Young terrible against Blitz, maybe in the in the 20s, the low 20s against the Blitz, and we go, “Nah, we we going to let him sit back.” Even Rico beating you down all day, break, I got even even Rico getting like beating you down all day. The big plays in the passing game got you and he was just able to sit back and do his thing. Can’t have it. I will tell you this and and this is something I looked up based on uh Nick Nick’s article, Nick Eatman’s article where he was saying the defense something has to change with the defense. And the point he was making was that you were playing statistically going into that game the quarterback in the NFL with the worst passer rating in the NFL. And you knew going into that game that you were facing a running back that the week before had put up 200 yards. Uh and he by the way let you know, buckle up cuz I’m bringing some of that for you. And instead of and and here’s the I went to look up the numbers. Check this out. Cowboys yesterday. When they had a light box, that means they had six guys in the box. Uh there were 17 runs against that. They gave up 101 yards, 5.9 average. When they had a neutral box, seven guys in the box, they had 14 runs, 82 yards, another 5.9 average per run. When they loaded the box, eight guys down in the box. They were only They only get that seven times against the run yesterday. They only gave up 33 yards, 4.7 average. More than a yard difference when they loaded the box. There is no way you’re going to convince me that it was not a good plan to say we’re going to load up the blocks more often. We’re going to load up the box more often than not. We’re going to force this quarterback into a situation where we’re going to have man, we’re gonna be manned up on the outside and you’re going to have to beat man against some corners, by the way, that we’ve paid a lot of money to. Yeah. and we are just going to be loading the box so that we’re going to do one of two things on every play. If it’s a run play, we’re gonna have so many bodies there that we’re just gonna clog it all up and stop the run or we’re going to have so many guys down in the box that we’re going to blitz you and we’re going to pressure the heck out of you and make you get rid of the ball quick and we’re going to trust those corners on the outside. the the fact that that was done the least amount of times and it was the one that where they found the most success. That’s where I’m looking at it and saying why would that have not been the game plan knowing what you were facing going into this game. That’s the hard part that it worked and they went away from it. That’s go back and watch the first defensive snap of the game. Mhm. And tell me what you see. Tell me what you see when Juan Thomas comes flying down in there. He misses the tackle in the hole with a clean runner and they get nine yards. So, happens quite a bit. Yeah. No, that’s fair. It happens. It happens quite a bit. And by the way, I I’m with you about doing something different. I’m a I’m a We talked about this about Carolina offense, what their path to victory, running the damn ball, right? And that’s what I’m saying. So, but when you when you commit to playing certain schemes and you commit to playing, you know, I’m all for it. Yes. more more heavy boxes, make this guy throw, do all that stuff. But when they do commit to it and all of a sudden a guy’s in the hole unblocked and misses the and there and and misses the tackle and it’s a nine yard gain. Is that on Thomas or is that on the scheme? No, it’s on Thomas. And here’s the deal. I’m not saying that that difference would have made them a great defense. What I’m saying is because by the way, giving up 4.7 yards per giving up 4.7 yards per carry great. That’s not great, but it’s better than 5.9. And that’s my point. Like it would have made you better. It might not have made you great, but it might have been the difference between a 30 to 27 loss. His answer was to play base defense. And even when they got into base defense, they had problems. Understood. They had I mean, we’re talking about you’re talking about the angles. No, you’re talking about the angles and the run blitzes and stuff with guys coming down. The defense is then going inside and nobody on the outside. Where are the linebackers? Sure. I mean, he’s trying to he and I’m not defending him. I’m just telling you that for every bad defense that he calls, his players are just as bad. Absolutely. Like all of a sudden on the T McMillan touchdown when all of a sudden they get Diggs on a tight end and Wilson’s having to cover T McMillan. Yep. Because Diggs tells him stay stay and and Wilson’s thinking, “No, wait. I got Oh, I got to go back.” And now what’s that? What’s that? Don’t even call it. Yeah. But by the way, I No, I understand what you’re saying, Brian. I I’m not saying that any not argue with you. I’m just saying though that for every bad call he has, your your players are just effing it up just as bad as he is. We know it’s both. We know it’s both. But there are small things you can do to get you from the bottom of 32nd to at least 27 and that’ll win you two games. Go ahead. But I I will say this and we got to go to break real quick. I’m not at all saying that they need to change the person. I’m saying that the person’s going to have to think, how do I get the most out of the personnel that I currently have on the field? You’re right. You’re asking, but that’s also where now it becomes a component of the head coach to say, “Hey man, we might have to change some things up.” That’s that’s when you might have you might have to force him to do some things that maybe he’s being a little resistant to. Because I will say this about coaches and Brian, you’ve probably seen this more than anybody else. They they kind of get in their mind, I know I’ve seen this guy do this before. I know he can do it. and they just keep holding on to I know he can do it. I know he can do it. He hadn’t done it in a while, but I know he can do it. They and they just trust and they could believe it because they’ve also seen times they keep giving it time and and after amount of time, oh wow, now it starts to work. And so that that lures them into this false sense of security that at some point it’s going to hit and it’s just taking too long to hit and somebody may have to say, “Hey man, we can’t wait around anymore. We are losing games because this just isn’t working.” All right, we’re going to take our first break. Let me say something. The show is over. Go ahead. Well, you guys uh I was going to say going back to that conversation about the players and individually also not being able to execute on some of those things. I am a firm believer that if you’re not fully committed to the scheme, if you don’t truly believe in it and and trust it, you’re bound to make mistakes whether you’re a talented player or not. Now, if you’re talking elite, that’s a different story. But these type of players that you currently have on the roster, you’re not position like you have to be mentally bought into the whole scheme and and the the guy that’s telling you what to do. Otherwise, it just reflects like that. You make those mistakes and you’re not you’re not going to be as successful as you can potentially be because we keep going back to some of these players. We’ve seen what they can do. It’s not like they’re a high school football player that knows well shouldn’t say that. A lot of high school cover three is the same thing in high school. What I’m saying three is cover three. Some high schools playing it better right now. Let’s go to break. Yeah, we’re going to take our first break. We’re going to come back. We got more to talk about. Uh we’ll be back. Dallas cowboys.com. Ready? 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. And if you like to drink Dr. Pepper, you love the unique blend of its 23 flavors. Together, your one-of-a-kind fandom paired with the one-of-a-kind taste of a delicious ice cold Dr. Pepper is the game day lineup that can’t be beat. 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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 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 in the game at lg.com. Welcome back. We’re in the second segment of the break live from SWBC mortgage studios at the Star. Uh this segment is brought to you by blockchain.com. All right, so we’ve been banging on the defense uh for most of the show so far. Let’s get back to the offense. Yeah, we have. I mean, honestly, and it’s fair, but I do think I do Stop it. I do think there is a there is a conversation that should be had about the offensive line because yesterday again wasn’t a great day for them. Uh Javvante Williams had 13 carries for 29 yards, a 2.2 average. I want to go down the offensive line. I want you to tell me what you saw from each of the different players. Now yesterday they got two of their guys back from the week before when they played the Jets when we were all loving what we were seeing from the offensive line when they were four guys down. What did we see yesterday? Let’s start first with the two guys that came back from Gayton and from from Tyler Smith. How did you think they performed yesterday? The passing game was good. Uh for Gayton, run game was cool. For Smith, he was powerful like he is. You know, tripped over himself a couple times. You know, that can that could be I’ve been sitting down for about a week and a half. I need to get back into it. But, uh I think Gton was Gayton. I think uh Big Tyler was was big Tyler for the most part. Yeah. I I think like to me there was a couple different times where Gayton and this is something scheme-wise when he’s on the back side of things and your responsibility is to to go front side to go to where the ball’s going and then block back. There was a couple times where he got so far down inside with his block that that backside runner just killed the play from behind. I mean that he’s gota he’s got to check his guy, get him he’s got to get him over to the guard and then he’s got to peel back and get his guy. And there was a couple of times in that game where he didn’t do that particularly well. I thought Hoffman had some problems with some combination. It wasn’t a really good game for Bass. Bass was on the ground a couple of times in some of the running plays. They just didn’t look like they had a good fit. We’ve seen this team before being able to double team get push and get the pullers involved. Hunter Lipkkey got thrown off in some blocking stuff in this game. Smith got thrown off in some blocking stuff because of the penetration. They didn’t do a very good job of securing the front side to get the push to allow the pullers to get inside and make the and to give Williams an opportunity to run behind some blocks. I think Williams had a couple of runs where he wasn’t very good where he saw down to the goal line. they had to play well blocked and and it was inside handoff and he instead of pressing the hole where it was blocked, he went backside and tried to make something out of that because he’s down in the red zone thinking he’s got to get he’s got to go forward. But overall, I don’t think I don’t think Hoffman was particularly great with some of his run blocks. I don’t think Bass was particularly great with some of his run blocks. And Gayton, I mentioned with some of the technique stuff with blocking back to making sure that his guys taken care of. steel. They didn’t have very many good double team blocks on the front side. They just could not. Carolina did a really nice job of attacking you, but getting up the field, stalemating you at the line. The Pullers couldn’t get there. Killed Dallas’s running game that way. You know what, Brian? It it almost feels like uh Carolina had three three techs playing downline. Yeah. And they went at you more than what the Jets did. Like the Jets were more like Reedy and kind of sidewaysy. And Quinnon Williams is a dude, but like next to him is like a miscellaneous character, Will McDonald, who’s like 260 pounds. And then they still kind of reading you a little bit when they’re not when they’re not rushing. Uh, but Carolina is like three big guys. Uh, Bobby Brown, Aan Robinson, who can play still, and then there’s Derek Brown, who’s the superstar of that group. They went forward at you. So when they’re moving forward at you, your backup offensive line superpowers kind of run out fast if you don’t have an extra reserve of power to you. Now, if this was a Booker BB game, it might have been a little different cuz what cuz what Brian mentioned earlier with a lot of these pulls, what you need when you when you pull is a is a clear pathway on the line of scrimmage, right? You can’t have Hoffman and Baz going backwards to possibly run into you while you pulling. That could be uh that could be big Tyler pulling. That could be the tight ends pulling because the tight ends pull a lot. So now sometimes the tight ends will have to loop around to pull a little more and that messes up timing and everything. So now Williams got to change his course. They just didn’t get enough uh get enough um push on the ducks. They didn’t get that push. And when you don’t get the puller there, then that leaves a free guy right there in the hole to make a play. No, you’re fine. I was going to say, is this part of like I know when when we first uh had the injuries pop up. I think that I think it was Vot that said, you know, for for a couple games back, they can they can be good and and but but the longer they got to play, the more you might start to see some of those problems. And by the way, that’s probably the reality for most backup players. That’s the reason why they’re backups because yeah, they have some some skill. Everybody in NFL has some skill. Yeah. It’s just as teams have a chance to watch you more and more and more, they start to figure out, oh yeah, here’s his problem. This is why he’s not the starter, and let’s exploit this. Is that what you guys were seeing yesterday, particularly from those two guys? Yeah, there was there was even a point where Carolina would move um Robinson closer to draw a one-on-one with Brown or like Bass will get a one-on-one or something like that. Like as long as they can combo, they typically can fight together and win. Uh but if they’re in a one-on-one situation, it’s bad. Uh but even even doubling, they didn’t, you know, they didn’t get all that much of a of a of a push there. And if Bass isn’t pushing all that, great. Now Terrence Steel is affected. You know what I mean? So like it’s it’s all you know. Yeah. I think that I think that Williams carried the ball what 13 times, Derek. Is that what it said? Carried 13 times. Yes, sir. Their defensive tackles had four run stuffs. Run stuffs in that game. Wow. You know, and then you had some their edges each had, you know, had some run stuff. You had you had you had plays where you just did not where you were where you’ve won the line of scrimmage in a lot of these games. We haven’t seen that on all. No, you got you got beat up. And and Fon is right though. Those guys are like they might be playing like three techniques, lighter guys, but there’s some size to that group there. There was some the the way that they were able to to get off blocks to hold up double teams to push you in the back field to stalemate you. That’s that was that was why they won in the running game right there. You they they did everything you needed to do playing run defense. They were able to accomplish that yesterday. Uh George Pickkins had a phenomenal day. nine catches for 168 yards and a touchdown with a 45 long. Um the interesting part to that is the next receiver as far as number of receptions was Jake Ferguson with three, Fenoi with three, Litkkey with two. Um, do you think that maybe yesterday was a day where, and again, I know it’s hard to blame the offense, and I’m not even about, it’s not even about blame, I guess, at this point, but do you think yesterday was a day where they really missed the abilities of Cid Lamb and Cavante Turpin because it just allows you something else to use again in that crunch time when they needed that drive where they go three and out. Maybe at that point they’re thinking, we’ve already been going to to to to uh George Pickkins a lot. We think they’re going to try to take that away and maybe they go somewhere different. Would it have been more helpful yesterday? And would yesterday have been the day where you really missed having those other weapons there that you could make reliable that that that could reliably make plays for you, man? Probably. You know, uh Lamb would have definitely made a made a um difference for you because he’d have lined up against somebody that shouldn’t be covering him at all. You know, maybe Turpin gets you a touchdown cuz he’s faster than everybody else. But I don’t mind days where cool if Piggins gets most of them and Florenoi gets a little bit, Jake gets a little bit. I think 30 points is like that’s enough to win. That’s enough to win. I mean I Well, 27 sure, but like that’s that’s that’s doing it. Uh it’s just unfortunate that in Cowboy land you have to shoot for, you know, 42 or shoot for overtime and all this kind of stuff. Uh but yeah, CD would have helped you. CD would have helped you. Also too, I I feel like I feel like whatever’s going on with Jaden Blue, I think just having a faster dude in the back field, maybe, you know, like if you can’t out physical Carolina and physical run game stuff, uh, you know, maybe at the end of the game, that’s what, uh, you know, Shotty was kind of thinking, hey, let me get Williams to the outside. Maybe a faster guy to the outside would have helped you there because they’re big and physical on the inside. Carolina is. Yeah, we want to sit here and kill the defense for not using their players the right way. How about the offense in that final drive? I could have used three more catches from from uh Pickkins in that game. They had they had no answer for him. Terrible drive. Yeah, that that is one of those things where all of a sudden you’re you’re like, listen, you know, hey, we found the scrub. You know, hey, they’re playing a little bit more man coverage. You know, Dak is killing. I think Dak was 11 of 12 against man. I mean, it was some crazy number where he was doing really, really well against the man coverage stuff. Pickings needed three more. He needed three more catches. you know, find a way if you’re gonna sit there and you’re not, you know, maybe we maybe you’re not running the ball, but they had no answer for your pass protection. They had no answer for your quarterback. They had no answer for your wide receiver. That final drive should have been all about George Pickicket. And it maybe even finished that damn thing off with a throw to to to Ferguson in the end zone for a touchdown or something like that. But that that was that was as poor of a sequence of plays that you’re going to find, especially when you had a player on offense that Carolina had absolutely no answer for. Yeah. It’s interesting because in the in the uh when we were when we met with George Piggins after the game in the locker room, one of the things he said, he was asked like, “Was this something you guys just saw as the game wore on that you were just going to have a great day?” He said, “Honestly, we saw it throughout the week. The kind of defense they play, we knew we were going to have opportunities.” and and sure enough, those opportunities were there. So, it certainly made you feel like they knew that they could go to it anytime they wanted. And I I heard this this morning. I was listening to Sean and R.J. on my drive-in and they made this point. I thought it was an interesting point. Don’t know if it’s true. You’d have to ask coach. That’s true. It’s probably not. But dang, Brian, killing your team, guys. I love it. I’m just kidding. But but no, I thought it was interesting. They said, you know, was this maybe a situation where he felt like um he knowing his defense, he felt like I got to go score here, but I got to take time off the clock. And so he wanted to start that drive by running the ball, thinking, “Let’s take time. Let’s take time. Let’s get a methodical drive. Let’s try to use as much of this clock as we can to limit the amount of time our defense has to go back on the field after we score.” And then it went south and you literally just turn it right back over. You in three plays, you’re out. Yeah. But the thing about it is though, if he goes and gets a score, he makes it a four-point game, right? Yeah. So now you’re in a situation where they have to go get a touchdown and you just had coming off getting a stop. Maybe you had some momentum there. Maybe they was going to score. Well, I mean that’s I mean his thinking about I think the thinking was okay if that if that’s what he was thinking. Again, these are these are our words that we’re putting on them. So I want to be clear about that. That wasn’t what he said. But if that was his thinking, I know when when they first scored, I I know when they got the ball back, I looked over at Nick and I was like, “Man, I I know this. They might want to take some time.” I tweeted during the game, you can’t punt anymore. Yeah. I I mean, I I got I got on Twitter. I got on there. I said and there was and it was a lot of game left. I said, we’ve come to the point in time in this game where Dallas can’t afford to punt. You just can’t you can’t do it. And ultimately, that’s you know what happened at the end. You the offense had one really bad series. They couldn’t run the ball, but throwing the ball was outstanding yesterday. And bro, what you think? Can we take a break? like he calling me out on purpose. We need to get one more We need to get one more break. We need to get one more break before we end this show. So, let’s take a break. We’ll come back. Then I can finish off the show. We’ll see what Amber has on her mind cuz she’s been sitting over there. I’m sure she’s got things to say. Uh so, we’ll take we’ll do that when we come back. This isowboy.com radio. Oh, nice. 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. 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 incident impacting tennor towers. Restrictions and exclusions apply. See at.com/g guarantee for details. 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. It’s the official men’s skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black. And right now, Cowboys fans can get 15% off their $75 order. Plus, because every deal needs a playmaker, your order will include a free fivepiece skin care set and free shipping. The Jack Black Playmaker is four of Jack’s favorites and a full-sized intense therapy lip balm. Make a play for the playmaker at getjackblack.com/cowboys with the code cowboys VIP. 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 Luc Casey. Shop the collection today at the Lucasey store at the Star in Frisco 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. We are in the final segment of the break. We only got like three and a half minutes left. But Amber, you have something you wanted to throw out there. Amber about to cook, man. I just Well, I’m I’m I need to sh because I I started reading the chat just now. They got you hyped. Well, it has nothing to do with the show, though. Okay. All right. So, I was Yeah, I was going to say like trade trade deck to the Saints. What? That comment. I’m I’m reading them. I did not see that. Come on. Awful workplaces said that. Go ahead. I don’t know where you want to go with that, but go. What’s up, Angie? Well, on Monday, I mean, we talked about, you just got done talking about the offense and some of the things that they did wrong on that side, but at the same time, if I’m being 100% honest, I’m having trouble even saying anything bad about the offense itself or the play calling. I know a lot of people here in the chat are criticizing Brian Sheltonheimer and the play calling, but right now my main focus, my 100% um anger, if you want to call that. I thought you saying focus, disappointment. I was I was thinking concerned. You weren’t very focus. No, no, no. It’s anger. Anger. It’s anger. It’s on the defense. And And I don’t want to rant and go on and on because we just did way over like 20 minutes. on the run. By the way, we just we just got in. This is a typical I bet this is happening at every office around the the the Dallas Metroplex where you got fans that are talking about the game this morning and they’re having these kind of passion because people are passionate about the Cowboys. But go ahead. What happened is Brian wanted to fuss. Yeah. He came in ready. As soon as it started, he was like, I’m just waiting for my cutting Derek off, cutting blam, please. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. No, we keep cutting Amber off. I’m sorry. Go ahead. 44. I’ll send it. Um, no. You ready to go home? My You keep throwing me off. My thing is, and I said this earlier about the sand slipping between my fingers is because the amount of time that I’ve been here, and I know everybody feels the same exact way, but the fact that we are, and you mentioned it, Brian, week six. What do you do at this point? Do you even have anything to do with the players that you currently have? and all of that stuff. Can you make a significant change that can at least get you to where you need to be where you’re not wasting another year with the current players? Again, this is a year, and I said this previous shows, Dak, I do not want to waste this year in the way that Dak Prescott is playing. Say what you want. Dak is killing it this year. He’s playing amazingly. So, I don’t want to go on and waste another year. And I don’t know what exactly you do defensively where if it’s the voice in that room that you change that seems like the very quote unquote easy thing to do and and more logical thing to do in the sense of like that’s a uh something quick that you that brings a new sense of hope when you do something differently because you cannot get rid of all the players. You cannot sign and bring and and trade a bunch of players either. So, you got to deal with what you have. And in the conversations we’ve had in the past, if you do two, three more stops, that’s it. Key stops. That’s it. That’s all you need. All you need because we still haven’t faced those bigger teams that are about to come. And I’m freaking scared if if we’re keeping it real and honest. What comes after the by-week has me very, very concerned. So, what do we do? Don’t look at me for answers because I don’t have them. Well, what we will do is we’re going to end the show today and tomorrow when we get back on the air, we will start talking about maybe what they can do and maybe give some thoughts on our end. Again, we’re not the ones that are going to make those decisions nor have to live with those consequences, but we’ll start giving you our thoughts on what we think the Cowboys do to move forward after this loss. Till then, for Vot Lombardi Brian Brought us, I am Amber Gar I’m Amber Garcia. 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? [Music]

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

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