Buccaneers upset Cowboys on TNF

0:00on today's PFT live a full breakdown of the Dallas Cowboys defensive meltdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, both from the perspective of the team that won and the team that lost. Also, Broncos coach Sean Payton taking back the play calling duties after only four games as he feels the season possibly slipping away for the Broncos all that much more in advance of week five of the 2026 NFL season on PFT live, which starts now. Second down in one from the 24 shotgun snap press got looking left nobody open throws over the middle deflected into the air and Zolone diving he's got the interception. He threw it to Ferguson and deflected off his hands and Alex and Zolone with the blonde locks flowing from under the helmet dives to make the pick and end the Cowboys threat. Second and 12 from the 10. Otton moat back in motion from right to left handoff is to Irving got a block

1:00to the 15 Irving to the 20 weaves to the 25 across the 30. It's a first down to the 33 yard line Bucky Irving with the burst that secures Tampa's first win of the season. Just like we all saw it coming the Tampa Bay Bucky years, oh and four go into Dallas a place where the Cowboys are tremendously successful against the greatest offense there is many are saying it's the greatest offense there is well not many some on the team have applied that nickname. I think they need to go back and reevaluate that nickname after last night. Leave it to the Cowboys riding high after winning the Battle of Texas after licking their wounds given the way they screwed up the final moments of the game against the Ravens in Rio. They come home on a short week and they get

2:01caught flat footed by a Bucky Nier's team. It got its first win of the season. It had been two and eleven over the last 13 games. Jalen Daniels undrafted rookie gets the win on the road in his second career start and week five starts with a surprise and surprise surprise. It is Michael Holly from an undisclosed location on Martha's Vineyard. I can only assume working curiously on a book that has a deadline of November one. You're not at Martha's Vineyard. I'm not you know I this is this is an amazing day for the Holly's. This is you know where I'm in Atlanta. I'm in Atlanta. Wow. Because our first born who'll be eighteen on November first. He's on a college tour. So we are we are we're visiting where parents we're trying not to be embarrassing parents on the college tour today asking

3:03you to be a part of the story. We're going to be 10,000 questions. We want to let him be the star of this tour. So that's where we are today. Just looking at college isn't Atlanta. And I'm at my in laws. My man lost place. And I told them it might you ever try to tell somebody what you do and you try to explain it. And they're like oh really. So yeah you know doing a show from seven to nine. It's going to be kind of loud. I don't need much just kind of set me up in a corner. We'll be talking about the book. Love do you want do you want this do you need this? No. We just going to be talking football for a couple hours. So I hope I'm not too much of a distraction to the piece of the household. Oh I hope the piece of the household ends up being a distraction to you. I can only hope that at some point over the next two hours somebody's going to walk into the room and start talking to you. Yeah. Hopefully there's a dog that's going to run in. I figured you were in a house somewhere. I was getting very confused because it's like

4:07I've been on the road a lot here and that's a nice hotel or what you know it's but a lot of nicknacks in that hotel. Like that's a nice room you got there and now we know you are in Atlanta. You are in Atlanta. So it's funny. Our kids have told us for years. Oh you know their house is so much nicer than ours. I'm like what? Oh yeah we love their house. It's the best house we've ever been in. Like what are you saying? I'm right here. I'm right here. Why are you saying this to me? I'm your father. I work so hard. So you're going to have nice things now. Now we love we love that they love the kids love coming here. So only one of them is here so they'll be disappointed that the other two will be disappointed. They don't have a chance to come to their favorite house and see their favorite aunt and uncle. So the real headline is as you do what you have to do it is a family obligation that you embrace.

5:11That you cherish that you relish it does increase the pressure a little bit for the November one deadline on the book. How's that going? Well Mike I don't know if you know any lawyers. Talk to a lawyer and kind of you know be my representative and talk about maybe we can coax out an extra two weeks. You know we get a we get an extension. A couple of weeks, couple of how you know two and a half weeks that that's it. You know everything will be fine. That would be great. You can just I don't know if you know anybody like that who could just kind of speak me my advocate. Talk on my behalf and just get me some extra days. That would be great. I can handle that I can handle that I can make a phone call or two I don't know that I won't permanently. Under mine your relationship with your publisher given my chosen style of negotiation but.

6:15That's the way you get the results. And I've never been like that I've been like that when I need to be there are some lawyers who just are. Deliberately hostile all the time and what it does is it makes no one want to have to deal with them. For any extended period of time so they give them what they want so they don't have to deal with them it's a genius approach if you're able to pull it off and just be an asshole all the time like. Over the top like just ridiculous but it works because everybody finds out all you don't want to deal with that guy so just yeah fine that's all you want thank God that's all so I only have to listen to you for 10 seconds. Thank thank heavens for that so anyway I can I can I don't have a license anymore I don't have a light somebody was asking me at the other day if I'm still considered a lawyer and I said no because.

7:15That does give me the ability to easily say to anyone who wants legal advice sorry I'm not a lawyer anymore and I can't I can't comment on legal matters because it would be a violation of the applicable laws that I no longer apply and enforce an interpret for clients but when I decided 2009 I can't believe it's been that long. When NBC came along and when NBC said that we would like to partner with your little little blog there we'd like to license all of your content we'd like to put all your content on NBC sports dot com and oh by the way we'd like you to stop practicing law. I can say this now because the 17 years have passed and the deal has been negotiated multiple times over I acted like that was a big deal in order to get the best possible.

8:20term. I know it means a lot this is what I do this is my livelihood I've been doing pft for eight years and still practice and law I can do both I like this I'm I'm participating in the dispensation of justice I've got clients who. Count on me to be here there aren't many people in town who provide the specific services that I do and there weren't and they're probably still aren't because. When you represent individuals against large multinational corporations some of which may not from time to time have sponsored this show and or football night in America it's not easy work and it's not easy money and you got a fight and you got to. You got to track down evidence and you got to try to prove that people are lying when they give the official reason why the person got fired but anyway anyway I eventually. It was very happy to put that life behind me because I served my time I did my 18 years it was hard it was difficult you have to fight all the time and so when it was time to do it.

9:26And it was time to go on an active status as a member of the West Virginia State bar they wanted a hundred dollars a year to be on an active status. And if nothing else at my core I am a cheap bastard I wasn't going to pay a hundred dollars for nothing. Why am I paying a hundred dollars why am I paying a hundred dollars a year for nothing for the place you got to pay a hundred dollars a year. A hundred dollars a year to be on an active status. I said no I'm done I'm done and I'm not going to do it again I'm not going back I don't need this as a parachute. I'll go do something else if this other thing doesn't work out so so I can't help you I guess is the end result. I've talked my way through it I'd like to help you Michael but I can't but I can but officially I can't because I don't want a bunch of other people asking me for legal advice. Thank you for wanting to but not really wanting to.

10:28And I I trust you want me the extension you'll you'll roll up your sleeves and you'll you'll get it done or you'll. Your sleeves all fall together and get her done alright let's get her done here whatever happened to that guy would ever happen to Larry the cable guy. Have I even thought of Larry the cable guy in the past 20 years whatever happened he was everywhere. It was everywhere it's amazing and now he's just nowhere. It's amazing the category that that category of celebrity who you you can't get rid of him you see him everywhere and then you go five or ten years you go whatever happened to that guy and you're probably a you know a handful of people saying whatever happened to that guy they just kind of disappear. It's weird I can't wait I can't wait to be that guy about whom people say whatever happened to that guy I look forward to the day where five people over under his 4.5 will stop and say what happened to that guy.

11:37Oh he's dead okay I don't think Larry the cable guy is. Larry the cable guy's best work of his career came in the movie cars which came out 20 years ago when he plays the unforgettable character. Mater in cars. Mater. Alright. They'll ask you. Here's the car. No quick Mike they'll ask you finally the answer to that question people ask you and you take a day off. Are you dead? Finally the answer will be true. You will not respond. They'll have that answer they'll say oh wow I guess I guess he is. To tie it all together apparently yesterday the on demand version of PFT live did not make its way to peacock because a lot of people surprisingly significant number of people watch the show not live seven and I but they watch it through the on demand option on peacock.

12:38And for whatever reason apparently based upon this one complaint usually when there's just one complaint what it means is the person like can't find the button to play it something happened with their app or they just they did something it's usually them when I only hear one complaint but but the person reached out and said that shows not on peacock today and it's the first time since the day that guy almost died on your show it wasn't on peacock so full circle don't die today. At least somebody will be close by the glass and let somebody will hear you at least somebody will hear you if you kill over at the table in the house family members all right let's get to it let's get to it I'm sorry I'm you know and I mean this is been a while since we've just kind of like burned the first 15 minutes of a show talking about the stuff and I mean it's a Friday in advance of week five of the season it's not like we know other things to talk about the buck and ears fans out there would read

13:52rather we talk only about their game all show long cowboys fans are in hibernation somewhere after last night embarrassment it really was something and they set the tone early jalen Daniels talked about this after the game that first drive they're down seven nothing that first drive they just methodically just they took up 10 minutes in 51 seconds and that's how you deal with the greatest offense there is you keep them off the field you make them wait to do their work you make them feel a higher degree of urgency when it's time to go back to work and if they feel like they got to make the most out of the limited time they have you know what they do look at that category four down from the top turnovers they make mistakes time of possession 39 21 for the buck and ears 20 39 for the cowboys that was largely fueled by that 10 minute and 51 second drive the first time the

14:56buck and ears had the ball and it wasn't easy it was a slog they were down in half time but you throw in those turnovers short fields and the Tampa Bay Buck and ears send the cowboys to two and three and what a different vibe now for the cow they want to talk themselves into thinking they're a real contender that may be a disqualifying loss at home against a winless team starting an undrafted rookie quarterback in a second game as a starter that may be disqualifying it may be another year that we don't see the cowboys in the postseason after that one I mean there's so many layers with the loss right Mike it's like you already said about Jalen Daniels you know undrafted pre agent starting a second game and let's just add a little bit more to it let's just turn it up a little bit more let's let's point out that Jalen Daniels was a six year starter at that football powerhouse Kansas a six year starter

15:58at Kansas I mean it's just it's kind of funny if you look at it that way look the cowboys the cowboys may be a great offense and I'm comfortable saying they are great offense if you look at those numbers you can say oh you scored 16 points how great are you scored 16 points in 20 minutes you had three turnovers you and you had a lot of things working against you you know those two tip interceptions for turnovers and then I turpent with the fumble on the kickoff and you were able to put up points when everybody knew what you were trying to do he couldn't run the ball yesterday so yeah you are a great offense so what when you have the worst defense in the NFC maybe one of the worst deepens is in the or the worst defense in the NFL so it's just too much to ask the offense to to rescue the cowboys and the cowboys have other issues particularly on defense and Mike you might remember this game I was looking at it last night just as as a kept counting the time of possession like how I will

17:07go how long will Tampa hold on to the ball I think it was a game was it a Peyton Manning game against the Bucks where they had the ball for 15 minutes I it probably was 15 to 18 minutes Peyton Manning and the Coles had the ball in one with 15 minutes of possession it's just hard it's a hard way to live we don't have the ball that much and you're just asking the offense to be perfect and even down the stretch they tried they didn't have on that final drive you know CD lamb is in the game and out of the game George Pickens is in the game and out of the game and they're going to third and fourth options trying to score and ultimately Ferguson couldn't get a ball that he should have had right his hands and you tipped it in the air and and that was the that was the nail to put the cowboys away but I don't know they do have a great offense not enough Mike

18:10well and again you you reduce the margin for error down to nothing when you don't have many possessions and when the other team is keeping the ball and moving the ball the Buckeniers had 419 net yard they had 241 rushing yards against the Dallas Cowboys so that defense is not good and Jerry Jones a few weeks ago after they they didn't look great to start the season against the New York Giants he said on one of five three the fan in Dallas the Giants are better than we thought they would be and then he was asked well are the Cowboys not as good as you thought they would be and he went into this long answer that basically acknowledge these are the most significant roster coaching staff changes we've undergone system changes we've undergone since Jimmy Johnson became the head coach in 1989 so why act like this a super bowl team then see one of these years Cowboys fans are

19:11going to figure out they're being conned by Jerry Jones one of these years they're going to recognize that the entirety of the off season is about creating the idea that you know the circus is coming the town and you're going to love it it's going to be a great show the three rings are going to have high end acts it's not going to be dogs cats and mice in the three rings it's going to be real stuff going on there's going to be all kinds of craziness it's going to be worth your money it's going to be the greatest show on earth and the greatest night of your life and we're going to deliver on all of our promise if you just give us your money at some point they're going to realize that when they slip through the opening in the big top and go in and sit down it's just not going to be what they expected it to be because we see that every year every year this dawned on me a couple of years ago and Chris and I disagree about this but I firmly believe the Jerry Jones is not nearly as tormented about his inability to win a super bowl as he pretends to be he'd like to it would be nice he's not tormented by it he's not letting it keep him from enjoying life he's working toward that goal but it's incidental to the fact that he just steps back in the

20:32money falls out of the sky and that's what it's about and I remember when I was a young football fan and someone first said it's a business I I resisted that I didn't want to think of it that way but it is and the cowboys have figured out how to pick your pockets cowboys fans how to take your money every year by creating the false promise every year and you believe it every year fool me once shame on you fool me 30 times shame on me well I'm going to say I don't think cowboys fans maybe some of them I don't think all cowboys fans believe what Jerry Jones is selling I don't think that I think they have come to the conclusion the sad the somber conclusion that there's no way there's no way around Jerry

21:37it's he's the owner and general manager of the team and they as as frustrated as you are with them he's not going to step away and he's not going to step back I'm not even telling him to tell him to the team he's not going to step back from general managing which is part of the problem which is why I agree with you if you're really tormented it tormented leads to some self-reflection and you'd say okay what can I do am I part of the problem is there something I can do yes there's something you can do why don't you let somebody else be the general manager because your brand of general managing is has us in this cycle that is going on 30 something years since our last conference championship game appearance so I think cowboys fans know he's just not going to give it up he is part of the problem like imagine for the team that you root for you're a Minnesota Vikings just think

22:39about just think about this last night as watching a cowboys saying I think just keep doing the same as it's over and over the same stuff and the same problem sometimes it's the offense sometimes it's the deep I'm just talking about in the last 30 years you know who knows what the problem is sometimes they have a very strong defense no quarterbacks sometimes they have a quarterback and know that's you know on and up your Vikings quite they uh quasi a double mints of drafted a quarterback uh that Kevin O'Connell did like and he let Sam Darnal leave the building and let Daniel Jones leave the building this is over a course of a of two years and he lost his job because of it ultimately hey you can't do that kind of you can't make that kind of mistake a couple of years yeah you have some success but that's a big mistake to make in your out how many mistakes how many bone headed decisions how many miscalculations has general manager Jerry Jones made in 30 years there's no general manager in the history of football

23:44who can survive with the track record that Jerry Jones has the only way to survive that is if you're the owner so yes he's a big part of the problem and he will never step aside from that job so he does he's not twirming it enough you're not twirming it enough to do a a pretty side that to make a seismic move for the Cobboy's organization so yeah they'll just uh they'll just keep messing around on the edges and making some cosmetic changes and now they'll talk about the defensive coordinator he'll probably lose his job he probably won't make it through the season so they'll talk about the defensive coordinator and still miss the issue i'm not saying he's not an issue but the core issue is the general manager who gave you everything that you have that the defensive coordinator has to work with and this is not the first defensive coordinator that the Cobboy's didn't have been disappointed with in the last five years since we're talking so much about Jerry

24:46Jones let's give him an opportunity to be heard here is a little bit of what Jerry had to say after last nights embarrassing home loss in prime time under the lights to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers extraordinarily extraordinarily disappointed you really do need to get it done when it's there to take and they basically were very physical i thought both their fronts was really surprised at how well they ran the ball how they ran it to the print the tacos that's uh that was impressive among other things he was asked about first year defensive coordinator Christian parker he expressed confidence in him we missed a chance here to improve we didn't improve as to his job security

25:48Jones said that's premature now that could be a harbinger could mean that what is premature now could become very mature as a season unfolds at some point there has to be accountability for such a dramatic failure to live up to the expectations that Jerry Jones set and as you were talking about Jerry Jones insistence on continuing to be the GM i remember to time early in my 17 years at NBC where Bob costus did an interview of Jerry Jones in advance of a cowboys game on sunday night and he asked Jerry the very simple question would you have fired yourself by now as the general manager and he said probably but i can't because i'm the owner of the team and this is an important comparing contrast because the week began with several prominent

26:49voices in our business expressing strong objection to the ritual the habit the this is how she does things approached by Carlis say Gordon the cult owner who is on the sidelines during the games taking notes talking to people she's eventually going to have to make the big decision she wants as much information as she can get about how things are communicated how the sausage is made she's going to stand there while they're cranking the meat grinder and understand if somehow a foreign object ends up in the sausage that creates potential liability for which they could not hire me because i'm no longer a lawyer she wants to know how it got there she wants to know who's responsible she wants to know how to avoid it again a lot of people have problem with that and i haven't heard anybody say jack did at least squat about Jerry Jones being the general manager

27:52of a football team just because he bought the team he had no skills no qualifications no experience to be the general manager of an NFL team he made himself the GM in 1989 and sitting here today the only shops that he has for the job is the fact that he's had it for 37 years that's right that's it i guess if you do something for 37 years you eventually begin to figure it out but if you made me a pilot i don't think after 37 years i'd know how to do it i'd be dead and and and say once again the email with the the email wouldn't even have to be at are you dead yeah yes you are yeah you're a pilot and you shouldn't be man man who has never even been in the cockpit of a plane tries to fly it and fails hey what does this thing what does this what how does this thing work what what does what does this do um look Jerry Jerry Jones is

28:59Jerry Jerry Jones is he's he says he can't that that interview of hey i can't yet yes you can't that's it that's the perfect time to do it because you're still going to be employed you're the owner of the team so the owner of the team can say yes i was a general manager but i have other thing there's so many ways he could get out of it he didn't want to he just i think he likes the attention i like i think he loves holding these press conferences after every game i think he loves his radio appearances i think he loves that we talk about him he's very entertaining giving that he's entertaining he's good for business he's good for what we do he's a good character uh in in the NFL but is he a is he the best the cowboys can do as a general manager he absolutely not but so i think that you know back to your point about cowboys fans falling for it i

30:03don't think they fall toward i think they just know but why are you going to root against this it's not going to change he's not going to just give up the job so we just going to have to hope that that there are people around them that kind of calm down some of his uh maybe some of his ideas than he has that are kind of crazy uh that that aren't good for business and hope we get lucky despite uh Jerry Jones not doing everything he can to put us in the best position and he may have been a good general manager Mike uh before the salary cap he may have been but the job is changed and you really have to your cap management has to be you have to be really strategic really thoughtful and i wouldn't say the cowboys have been great with the salary cap would you they're not strategic or not thoughtful uh they're not forward thinking when it comes to the cap and that's a big part of job

31:05when trivia was the first year of the NFL salary cap 1995 1994 when was the last year the cowboys made it to the NFC championship 1996 1995 so close just uh just stick with the it's a little bit exactly i i was thinking come on man you just said it so the salary cap the salary cap is put in place in 1994 and it's not a coincidence that the cowboys current stretch 30 years and counting the only team in the NFC that has not played and at least one NFC championship began the year after

32:08the salary cap was put in place and i remember i wasn't in this business yet but i still followed it very very carefully and i loved all of the intricacies and the salary cap and it added an entirely new layer of complexity and intrigue and i think the salary cap and free agency is the thing that laid the foundation inadvertently because the NFL didn't want it but once it happened that was the kind of first accidental gold mine that the NFL stumbled into because it unlocked 12 months out of the year of coverage of the NFL but i remember other teams were weaponizing the salary cap and free agency to dismantle the roster the Jimmy Johnson had compiled in Dallas yeah and the cowboys couldn't do anything about it because they couldn't counter because they

33:09were dealing with the salary cap and fast forward 30 years Jerry Jones is still determined and it's all ego driven let's be realistic about it and he would admit it it's all ego driven because because Jimmy Johnson got all the credit and Jerry didn't and Jerry wanted more credit for building the team that won three super bowls in four years and so he's bound to determine that i'm going to learn how to fly that plane the pilot got all the credit the last time we flew the plane that i bought and dammit i'm going to fly the plane this time you know it's funny Mike i think we talked about this this cowboys documentary from Netflix a couple years ago right or last year did you watch the you watched the whole thing excellent excellent yeah it's really well done

34:13but one of the things and i'll give him credit well a couple of things before i get to that documentary i'll say i was at the hall of fame induction for Jimmy Johnson so Jimmy Johnson was there gave great speech he mentioned he mentioned Jerry i mean Jimmy speech was great but he kind of acknowledged you know some of the you know i know you're probably wondering what i'm going to say about Jerry he acknowledged the tension and then a documentary even more so they took on the tension of the relationship the the the breakup the big fight there was some alcohol involved at the owner's meetings and they got into an argument and Jerry Jones fired uh Jimmy Johnson there and was cussing and reporters witnessed it so they they addressed all of that but one of the old clips they showed was Jerry and Jimmy sitting down for an interview together and Jerry was asked flat out i mean i mean Jimmy was asked flat out do you think Jerry knows football

35:19and and Jimmy kind of he kind of grimaced a little bit and he was like you know he kind of kind of talked around it but it's clear no he he does know football but not to the level of clearly not Jimmy Johnson doesn't know football like Jimmy Johnson it's okay to say that and he doesn't know football to the degree the business of football that everything you so understanding players who fit your scheme and why they're going and identifying those players and then signing those players a long time long-term contracts and the whole understanding of what a general manager what a good general manager does no he doesn't and it doesn't matter it doesn't matter so i think he's so excited and the latest misstep for for Jerry Jones he was so excited and still is to tell anyone who wants to listen how they won the Micah Parsons trade and how he's so excited that they got all this capital

36:25it was just one player with Micah but liquid they did and liquid they were able to turn that into well last year you weren't very good on defense this year you're not very good on defense who cares about the trade that you won when you're not winning games and you're not getting to the playoffs and you're not getting to the conference championship that's the point so it's just it's too bad they have a lot of the cowboys have a lot of talent in some areas but as a cohesive team they they got a lot of work to do Micah a lot of work it is quite the dichotomy i have a ton of respect for Jerry Jones as a business person and what he has done to help the NFL reach this golden egg era where the goose is just crapping them out all over the place he pulled the NFL into what was a series of mom and pop

37:29operations that were focused on just getting by just enjoying what they do into a strategic deliberate carefully constructed and orchestrated business that maximized all revenue streams and created as many new ones as possible and he is a great promoter he loves that he lives for that he relishes that you mentioned the radio what owner does two 20 plus minute radio spots per week in season i'm surprised he doesn't do it in the off season i'm surprised he doesn't do it year round but he does it every week of football season 20 plus minutes on one of five three the fan in Dallas he loves it and in that respect he's great for the game he's great for the sport and he's great for the cowboys but he's also a disaster of a general manager as time has proven out

38:34the mere fact at what point do you sit down at what point do you have the realization like at the end of the movie when Bruce Willis finally realizes he was dead the whole time spoiler alert at what point does Jerry Jones have that realization that the last 30 years of my life have not entailed a single appearance in the game that determines who goes to the super bowl and it's my fault it's all my fault it all stops with me and how do you react when you have that moment maybe already has and he's decided well dammit i'm just going to work even harder i'm going to re-double my effort or does he say hang on a second hang on a second i got this app on my phone it shows how much money i have now we're fine no i think it's i think it's the app i think the app i think the app stands out like and you know what else stands out to him okay after all this what what we've

39:41said about him okay look at the nmc east the nmc east after last night the nmc is open the nmc east is open for business it really is i don't know if you believe the giants are as good as they as good as their record says they are but you got all these teams in various states of flux of of talent of crisis whatever it is you know they all these teams have various issues but they're all in it including the cowboys they're two and three they look terrible on defense but they're two and three the commanders look terrible last week but they got they've got the other Daniels at quarterback the second best Daniels at quarterback in the NFL jaden just kidding but they got jade daniel's coming back and and filanel fia they just kind of renovated their offensive line during

40:42the week that was strange but they just did a whole in season renovation they're still in it so i think jerry jones looks at it and says how bad can i be we're in this thing we'll be in this thing all season long but it was an opportunity last last night it wasn't even an opportunity it was a presumption they would win that game they should be three and two right now and they're not we have plenty more to discuss about this game and we're going to do that before we do that though i do have to make one i guess it's a question but neither of us is going to know the answer and i don't think anybody watching the show is going to know the answer i assume the multi billionaires are just like the rest of us in that they do have an app they do have a button they can press i have no idea how secure it would be but you know you press a button and all your accounts come up and can you imagine like there's not enough room on the screen for all the zeros i assume they all have

41:46that app on their phone at least one owner has a very different app or at least had a very different app as of late august that app is probably deleted from the phone now you went there with that said let's take a break there was an interaction after the game between deck press caught and someone who called the loss embarrassing deck was not happy about that plus all box fans we got some things to say about your role in last night's game and your head coach may not like one of the things we're going to say that's next on pft live with the Dallas Cowboys the entertainment happens before the game during the game and sometimes after the game the video emerged last night someone sent it to me and i didn't quite understand what it was at first because the audio isn't crystal clear but deck press caught walking down the tunnel toward the locker room someone says something that catches his

42:50attention it turns out someone someone said embarrassing as it relates to the Cowboys performance obviously and deck press caught didn't like that he mentioned to some other member of the Cowboys staff that someone had said something and then the camera follows the individual you keep waiting for some climax to this interaction there's going to be some someone grabbing some ones lapels or there's going to be an AI version of or they actually fight there's so many of those stupid videos there's at least one shot and there's more of them out there but deck didn't like when he heard someone say embarrassing and he addressed after the game the incident that definitely did make its way into the questioning at his post game press conference here's some of what he had to say know when you said that just happened to look at him and at that point you know he looked the way

43:51didn't look and then when I turned my head back he said something else and so that's the part that you know just as a man or as just a person of feel free to speak your mind just speak it don't don't coward away from the reaction that you're going to get and so yeah I mean if you're saying it's embarrassing it's embarrassing if you're saying it to me then say it to me don't you know what I mean uh go back on it so that's all that was and hate it that it's even being talked about to be to use the word embarrassing is tough I feel like I'm discredited in the NFL if I use that and and particularly the the Tampa Bay box in a great Todd Bulls coach and defensive coach team guy's been a winning coach for a long time and whether he's been a head coach or a defensive coordinator and that that's the plan and what they did tonight is the reason for that and so to say embarrassing I think I'd be discredited in them and but we're definitely supposed to win this game this is a game you know that was a game we're supposed to have on paper or whichever way you want to look at it and I think Shady said it best in the locker room and this league you've

44:53got to win the game just supposed to win and when a winless team comes into your home stadium on a Thursday night primetime game yeah we're supposed to win that and so it sucks and and right up there close to embarrassing but I don't know if I would say that okay I have three very quick observations here number one he shouldn't have reacted just keep walking anytime you're in the public eye like that and somebody says something you don't like don't react and if you do react just smiling thumbs up that's my approach one in a stadium and if I'm walking past someone flora you suck I just smiling give them a thumbs up right now secondly I don't know why he's talking for 45 seconds about it at his press conference and I'm a big duck press caught fan and I'm saying this in a positive way like deck there are certain times where you have to say you know I really don't want to talk about that let's talk about the game why not here to talk about some dumbass that said something out in the it's long

45:54soliloquy on whether or not it's embarrassing and that leads into the last part too it's either embarrassing or it's not and the idea that it's disrespectful to the other team to say that the loss was embarrassing that's a pretty difficult mental pretzel to twist yourself into under that circumstance you can say anything that happens under the auspices of the NFL shield no matter how badly you lose you're not embarrassed because that takes away from what the other team did well the other team executed a play on third and twenty one that you let them execute to convert third and twenty one you let the guy run to the sticks and stop and catch the ball at the sticks when everyone could see the big giant orange stick that the guy had to get to that's embarrassing that's embarrassing the defense the team played is embarrassing and when you have a record and an expectation

46:57for what you're going to be and you've got a team that hasn't won a game this year and is one two out of the last thirteen games dating back to last year and they come into your building and beat you that is embarrassing and acknowledging that doesn't take away from the fact that they came in and beat you wasn't embarrassing yes Mike is an embarrassing performance from the cowboys it's not just that the buckineers were winless because you could make an argument oh sure they're winless but they're much better than that they've got some talented players on the team but not last night when you have no Baker Mayfield and you've got Jalen Daniels not Jaden you have Jalen Daniels a quarterback you can pretty much guess what do you think the game plan will be offensively they probably don't want to put the undrafted rookie free agent in situations where he's got to throw the ball up they probably wanted to establish the run and they did all night long the cowboys could not stop them that time of possession that we talked about earlier yeah that's embarrassing

48:01against any team but particularly a team that hasn't won a game this year now I'll say I'm kind of on that side only in this sense with stopping and turning around just for context I think if he's on the field if you're on the field and you're headed toward the tunnel well you should probably get ready for all sorts of things and that's a matter of fact maybe put your helmet yeah keep your helmet on just in case but most players when they go inside that tunnel what what you usually have there is members of the media and members of the PR staff stadium workers they usually don't say anything that I don't think players are conditioned to hear the trolls when they're in that space that's the only way I'll defend them that's unusual for being inside the stadium outside the stadium on your way inside yet it's fair game so it probably threw them off

49:04I agree with you maybe you got to have some restraint and let that go but generally you don't hear you don't hear cat calls you don't hear any kind of you know snarky remarks in that space in the stadium speaking of the third and twenty one play coincidentally and this really is just flat out stuff happens sometimes it's good sometimes it's not good this is a good one somebody just sent me the film of that third and twenty one play and I'm watching it now and it is truly embarrassing they have twenty one yards to gain they have four rushers they have a wall of five defenders about halfway to the twenty one yards that needs to be gained by the Buccaneers and they have two safeties deep but the snap some of the five kind of fall back it looks like they go back to a cover four when they've got four safeties across but the guy who drops deep keeps going and there's a guy

50:11in a shorter zone and there's this huge opening at the sticks they're covering ten yards short of the sticks they're covering ten yards behind the sticks they're not covering the line again and a mecca Bucke is wide open the line again so I don't know how you get to a point at a professional level in the NFL where in that moment and remember this is the same team that in Rio against the Ravens played the very questionable defense that Mike Talman called out at half time after making the mistake of kicking the ball into the end zone and setting the Ravens up on the thirty five this is inexcusable you get I've got a different angle of this that shows where everyone is but you can see one guy the guy drops out but by the time they form their final windows and zones there's a huge hole at the yellow line yeah there's a huge hole at the yellow line third and twenty one and I remember watching this play live and I said to my son is that yellow line in the right spot

51:18they had third and forever and they they gained they gained all in what they holy shit so that's a and and this is this is the disconnect between Jerry Jones who speaks in these broad generalities and the glass is always half full typically with Johnny Walker blue and when you you ignore the the specific details that help paint a different narrative you can say everything's great everything's fine and then what about this and he'll come up with some way to talk his way around it but you have enough of these what about this explain that how did that happen well we'll learn from that mistake certain mistakes shouldn't be made and I'm sure if he's asked about this today when he's on one of five three the fan maybe someone will say hey Jerry why on that third and twenty one play was there a gigantic opening in the zone right at the spot where they needed to gain and say well

52:21you know that's not more learned from and that's a mistake and we'll learn from that the whole idea of being a professional coach at the highest possible level is you already know this stuff yeah you not learning how to fly the plane the same way Jerry learned how to be the GM and maybe that's why he's sympathetic to the plight of an NFL coach he's been there and done that being unqualified and trying to teach himself one mistake at a time how to do the job the right way so maybe maybe he's showing them some grace because he showed himself the same grace for the last thirty seven years but Mike we talked earlier about the vote of confidence for the defensive coordinator certainly didn't sound like an emphatic vote last night do you hear the clip where he said well he's competent I believe he's competent okay that's nice he's competent and he is standing up and facing the music

53:27the media asking him questions about his underperforming we think maybe it's an underperforming defense or maybe this defense is performing exactly to its collective talent level I don't know but part of it yes the defensive coordinator will take some of the brunt and probably will cost a job I mean the defense continues like this they probably will not stick with the same coordinator throughout the seasons just not going to happen it's not realistic to think but I don't know if anybody's teaching for example like a bad run defense all stuff but still late in the game Mike how about Doran Blan having a ball right in his throne right on the numbers is almost like he was the intended receiver in a Doran Blan catches this ball right here I mean that is a good ball and he is done we know he's got good hands he's had many big sixes in his career that would have been

54:31another one that would have been another one so yeah they got some scheme issues and they just have some just some basic achievement issues not playing to the talent level individually but collectively they look like they're a mess is chaotic the ball literally hits him between the two and the six it hits him in part because it went through his hands but it was as easy of a pick six as you'll ever see it's why he was upset with himself afterward some would say that's why he plays defense but we have seen him generate interceptions that become touchdowns on a not regular basis but he had a year where he was chasing the old time record and there was talking him being defensive player of the year that's how often he was turning interceptions into touchdowns all that said all that said the cowboys had a chance the cowboys had opportunities they were driving for a potential game time

55:34touchdown if they had converted the two point conversion because they did that analytic thing where if you're down 14 you go for two after you score the first touchdown if you get it you can steal the game with seven and avoid overtime if you don't get it you can go for two the next time and you still get 14 points and that's all well and good until you fail to convert the two point play twice then you screwed then you screwed the the the final spot on the flow chart in that moment is you're screwed so we don't even get to that we don't have the conversation about Doraun blend dropping the pick six we don't have the conversation about Jake Ferguson pop on the ball up into the air and having Alex and Zaloni pick it off to end the game we don't even have that drama if the Buccaneers on fourth and goal from just inside the one kick the field goal and go up three scores and this is something that I harp on all the time don't think about a game

56:37in terms of points think about a game in terms of scores you're up two scores if they score a touchdown there there up three scores if they kick a field goal there there up three scores and that becomes particularly important in the fourth quarter when there is limited time limited time means limited possessions being limited opportunities to have the number of scores you need 17 midway through the fourth quarter is insurmountable and it's as surmountable as being up 21 the only difference is in the in the third possession you got to get a touchdown instead of a field goal so go up 17 Todd bowls addressed it after the game you know it's funny I listen to the post game press conference and maybe it's just because you know it's tired or I don't know what I didn't I didn't notice it when I listen to it but he did say we talked about it and with less than a yard the way we were running the ball we tried to put the game away you would have put the game away with 17

57:42that's the thing that's the point 17 puts the game away now if you say if you say we were running the ball so well I believe that our chances of scoring the touchdown were greater than our chances of making the field goal which if you can't make a field goal when it's snapped inside the one you need a new snapper holder kicker and everyone blocking for the field goal unit but I mean and that's as automatic as it gets that's shorter than the than the extra point used to be back when they snapped it on the two and it got so boring they decided to move it back to the 15 but if they would have lost that game they would have been held to pay and there still should be held to pay it's still unforgivable just because it didn't blow up in their faces it just bubbled right it just it was about to blow up in their faces that's enough and in the ownership suite the glazers

58:42they had to be thinking what did our guy do here and just because it didn't blow up in their faces doesn't mean they shouldn't be very concerned about the failure of Todd Boles to understand Anne Zach Robinson the offensive coordinator to understand the right thing to do in that moment yeah Mike the cliches just drive me crazy when it comes to this lately of hey we're just trying to be aggressive usually that's what happens we got to be aggressive in that situation so that's one cliché of foregoing a field goal and going for it going for a touchdown and the other cliché which is not true because you don't know what's going to let you can see the future you don't know so here's the other one well you're not going to be in certain name of dominant quarterback you're not going to beat Patrick Mahomes you're not going to beat Josh Allen you're not going to beat

59:44Matthew Stafford by kicking goggles but you might and you probably yes she can hey ask Clint Kubiak Clint Kubiak you might have beaten Patrick Mahomes last week if you would stay with that field goal instead of taking it off the board you don't know how a quarter back is going to play throughout the course of the game you go just go in and say well this offense averages 32 points of game so we think they're going to average 32 against us no you just play the game as it's being played and see what happens take the point how many situations have there been this year Mike where teams have just given away points given away points just because they want a touchdown we all want touchdowns but take a field goal it's it's it's free money go ahead and take it I can see as soon as it happened and we were on the group chat I said this game's going over time

1:00:48here we go this game's going over time that was just a crazy decision from top bolts and you really wonder how that's going to stick to him if they don't parlay last night's win into something that pulls them back into relevance because you know the good news is they're not that far behind everybody else but still you've got the Panthers two and two the Falcons two and two they were both looking very good and the Panthers are off this week but the Falcons in position to get a win over the Ravens on Sunday night football one last thing before we go and it illustrates how many different layers and levels there were coming out of last night's game Joey Porter Jr. in his second game with the Dallas Cowboys didn't play he was sick there was video of him walking out of the locker room there was a staffer carrying a trash can it was images of Chris at the scouting

1:01:50combine in 2020 when he made the quick escape exit stage right with the trash can as he was dealing with the aftermath of eating the hamburger that fell on the floor at La Guardia airport and I wish I was making that up so is that really what happened yes oh yeah a hamburger that fell on the floor he was rushing to get to his flight anybody hamburger and he dropped it on the ground and he picked it up and ate it now I guess it was like mostly wrapped right but yeah but anyway anyway Joey Porter apparently dropped a drop day of hamburger on the floor on the way to the stadium yesterday and picked it up and ate it and it it is at best ironic now the ultimate irony would be if he dropped a hamburger on the floor bent over and throughout his back that would be the ultimate

1:02:53irony given that it was the back injury that he relied upon to get out of Pittsburgh and everybody knows that was fake if not completely embellished or largely embellished it wasn't real because one flight to Dallas cured his back injury and he played a few days later there is some suspicion and Richard Sherman may have said something to this effect I saw it on Twitter I didn't catch the pregame show and I can't say that that's any different than any other Thursday but apparently there's been some suspicion that this is just another chapter in the FU pay me files of Joey Porter Jr. Someone said to me today you know it is odd like if you're sick you have access to doctors and trainers and like why are you leaving why'd you number one if you're sick why'd you get why'd you even go and if you're sick why are you leaving they can take care of you they can give you an IV they can give you medication there's got to be somewhere in the locker room where you

1:03:57where you can just like rest up not like he was going to play but anyway the whole thing is odd because of how he got out of Pittsburgh so anytime that he's not able to play for any reason the first thing people are going to think is it's a new manifestation of the thing that he used to get out of Pittsburgh yeah maybe I would say I'd be skeptical if this happened while he was a member of the Steelers but I heard and you did too that press conference he gave as a member of first press conference he gave as a member of the Cowboys and the other reason to get him out of there I would say is you don't want to get anybody else sick I don't know if he knew he was sick before he came to the facility but what you don't want is some type of outbreak this defense is already struggling the last thing they need is boy guys missing because they're you know they got the burger off the

1:04:57floor now I'll say one thing about our brother Chris Sims let's he should be fortunate that he didn't he didn't drop a burger at L.H.O. if if if he had dropped a burger at Lee Harvey Oswald airport that would be it that could have been it for him so I'm glad he did it at JFK and not a little quantity that not the L.H.O. on that note we uh god we're well over an hour already when we return a story that we reported in real time yesterday that the insiders tried to poo poo and downplay and marginalize turns out turns out any effort to marginalize sanitize homogenize what the truth was failed because the man who's at the heart of the question of who's going to be calling

1:06:01the plays for the Denver Broncos came out and said yesterday that yes he will be we'll discuss that next on PFT Live