Player's Lounge: Identity Crisis?

0:00Scams don't always look like scams anymore. AI can make a fake ticket offer, look legit, or a sports book text sound official. And once an identity thief gets your personal information and starts using your name, then what? Lifelock helps detect potential identity threats and suspicious activity. And if identity theft happens, Lifelock's restoration specialists help restore your identity. Guaranteed, it's identity theft protection for the life you are building. Get Lifelock at lifelock.com, use the code football for up to 30% off your first year. That's lifelock.com code football, because isn't your identity worth protecting? The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys.com and the Dallas Cowboys football club. How about this, get it over? Yeah! Go Cowboys! This is the players lounge. Broadcasting live from Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters at the star.

1:01Now your hosts, Barry Church, Anthony Dorset, Demontre Moore, and New East Krugs. Yo, come on in, come on in, you know what it is. What's good? What is it? It's the players lounge. Yes, and Dedy, man. Yeah, we have the SWBC studios out here. The Cowboys head, of course. Anytime I say SWBC, I feel like I'm supposed to start rapping after that. Yeah, it comes with it a little bit. Yeah, it comes with it a little bit. Yeah, it's great. Today we got some going on for your day, but of course we got my man Barry Church. For the Dallas Cowboys. And we got my man Jesse Holley, Mr. Forfe and Long, on the Dallas Cowboys as well. And we've been needing this offensive perspective in this group, man. You know what I'm saying? We're real, we really believe it. But it's good to have you. Thank you for joining us today. Now, you know, before we get into like the meat and potatoes, everything, there are six starting quarterbacks hurting NFL right now and they all in NFC.

2:01You know what I'm saying? We got Jackson Dart, who we just found out is probably going to be out for the rest of the season. Right? You got two in Atlanta. You got Caleb Williams, Chicago, Jaden Daniels, of course, with the commanders, Kalimari with the Vikings now and Sam Darnal. And out of those six, you only got one. They got a defense to basically be able to hold up and help him out in some kind of way. You know what I'm saying? So, but the good part about all that is that number four is doing just fine right? He's healthy, baby. And so, you know, like this has been like a week to beat up on the Cowboys, so to say in a little bit of ways, like especially not just, you know, with the media, but kind of in here, you know, with everything that happened last week, even though they got the W, just the defense and the way the team has been playing. And then not to mention like, I guess you could say going into the season with all the transitions, with all the new faces. And just everybody would just have so much of a,

3:03I guess you could say so much optimism for the season. But of course, you know, but, you know, one in one right now, fortunately, but, you know, that optimism, of course, has had some peaks and valleys so far without question. Now, what you being in here today and being able to share some light on some of the stuff that's going on with the offense, what do you think is the main thing right now that is hindering the Cowboys in the run game first and foremost? All right. And then as well, what do you think is going to take for, you know, we have, GP has been out there playing, but we haven't seen that GP breakout game yet. Is this going to be a thing where it takes, I say, another injury on offense? Or is it ever going to be that two-headed monster where we see CD and GP out there going crazy? And you can just hit on one or two of them. Yeah, yeah. No, let's start with the offensive line

4:04in the running game, right? Because this is where it all kind of breaks down. And, you know, people try to make it as if when Tyler Smith went out, oh, to Tuesday bads, he'll be in, he'll be fine. When you take elite all pro talking about arguably if not the best, he top two, he might not, he ain't three guards in the entire league. We've all played in this league. And there's something to be said when you're mentioned as one of the best at your position. That's different than being good. Right? Like just, all right, yeah, he good. Now, he won the best at his position in the league. Right. That's Tyler Smith. And so when you don't have that elite player in there, you know, offensive line is one of those units that need to beat, that have that cohesiveness. And when, you know, you, you're, what it was those saying is you are as strong as your weakest link. Right. Well, when your strongest link is not in there, everything else becomes around you even weaker. Like Cooper Beebe, good player, decent player,

5:08he's better when they all pros next to him. Yeah. Tyler Gaiden, good player. Right. Better when the elite guys around him. Right. Everything now is strengthened. So part of the run game is down because you're missing your all world left guard. That matters. That matters. Secondly, you've been dealt an unfortunate hand of cards with who you played defensively. Okay. Your first game of the season in the New York football giants. Last year, they gave up 5.3 yards of carry on the ground. When they brought in their new defensive coordinator from the Titans, they were hell bent on not being able to give up 5.3 yards of carry. That's pretty crazy. Right. And so now what, what he wanted to develop and bring us, what he had kind of similar to in Tennessee was, we come up building a wall. Right. So like, we're not looking to rush up the field anymore. We're looking to what the actor Cowboys do. Hey, hold that gap. Be big, be strong and not give up any scenes for the running back.

6:10Well, guess what? You face the same thing in week two against the Washington commanders and DeRontane and Ken Law and company. Same thing. DeRontane Jones was the defaults of coordinator there. So they all want to build that wall and not allow you to run the football. And that's what you run into the first company. So you have a combination of, you're missing your best off-hand lineman and that breaks down your group, the breaks down your unit. Because and they said this, they said this about Cooper Beab and I think it's true. It's Cooper Beab is good. He's good enough to get there, but he's light and he doesn't have the strength to move people by himself. Again, when you got that mall next to you to your left and he go to put a dude on you and now you like, oh, you put him on him and you knocked him off balance. I'll take care of him. You don't have that. You don't have that now. Like TJ Bass is like he's swimming too. But when you got Gait and then excuse me, you got Smith in there.

7:10He's like, nah, I got you. We're going to do so we're going to do, we're going to move this tackle. And I'm going to move to a place where I'm going to get the momentum started. You finish it off and then I'm going to the next level. They don't have that right now. And then as far as the past game, you know, it is working how it's supposed to work. They try to shut one guy down. Well, the guy goes off. This is the same way that you start a last year for George Pickens. He started a year, 60 something yards, 68 yards until the injury. And then like they went down a little bit. Yeah, then like the third or fourth game. So he took off. Yeah, for sure. So this is this is just how they're planning right now. And at any given time, the ball can go to either one of those guys and they can make a make a make a play. This happened last week because first game neither one of them got off. Mm-hmm. Had some drops in there. Yeah, yeah, he had some drops last week. He had a 100 because the deep ball. Yeah, it's not like he's not had the opportunities. He dropped two last week. 100%. Two weeks ago, excuse me, two weeks ago. He dropped two that would have been easily 60, 70.

8:13All right, well, you add that to the 40 he already had. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And then last week, it just one of those things where I, well, city was cooking. It might be different this week. I am. I'm not going to have to go to the high hand this week. So it's working. It's working. How it's supposed to be working. Um, I think and also are we cowboy nation. The expectations are always like. Yeah. That's high. Yeah, two tall Jones. You know what I'm saying? Like it was that way about Christian Parker. It was about way about how the deep was going to get turned around. Like every like even a national meeting was like, oh, Christian Parker, the deep. There's two bokeh to your champions. Now nobody say that two weeks in. And so there was always this lofty expectation on what it was be. It's just in every situation they have that. When has it never been like that? And that's what I'm saying. Okay. And so when it's not happening that way, it's. And I don't understand why don't they temper the expectations. And I'm talking about the guys that are in the building. I'm talking about the, you know, the coaches in it. Because when you, you got these, you know, guys out in the media and myself included.

9:13That was like, yeah, this is defense. On paper looks so much better than the unit they had in the past. You don't see, you know, the guys in the media coaches in the, well, hold on. You know, this is a work in progress. We still got, you know, a lot to do. You talk about this graduation day. Yeah. And we go see this and we go to see that. And then when that doesn't come to fruition on the football field, then that's when you get all the same old saying. There's that in the third. And I don't know who we're just a working progress. That's the only thing I don't understand about it. Like why not from the beginning say, hey, look, man, look, I understand you guys got these lofty expectations for us. But this thing, this thing is a work in progress. But then I also understand that they don't want to hear that. They don't want to hear that. I didn't work in progress. When you think about the sports psychology involved in it, if you're a coach and you might, now you might recognize certain things. You might say, okay, hold on. You know what I'm saying? But at the same time, you want to feel your players with that mentality as well though. You want them to think that they actually are who they say they are. You know what I mean? And they can play like they say they can play.

10:14So with that, like, yeah, I can understand how to coaches. And then there's only really two, two voices coming out here. It's going to be Jerry or Shoddy. You know what I mean? For the most part. And this year has been the most quiet that I've seen Jerry in a long time. As far as with the off season and just everything else in the building to the team. And I think that part of that was because of the lofty expectations with the new people, with the draft picks and everything else like that. He was finally like, I'm not trying to stink or speak for Jerry. But he might have finally been in the place where like, okay, it's matching up. What I'm saying out here is actually matching up on paper with the people that we have in the building. Like we actually look like we have this talent. You know what I mean? And so with that, you know, I can definitely see why the coaches don't come out and say a whole lot. And you know, but but you're right. And one of the things that I've noticed my entire life because I ain't got no choice. But I've been around this place almost my whole entire life. Those expectations have been the same my entire life.

11:14No matter who was on the team, no matter what was going on, you know what I'm saying? It's the cowboys, they're going to do this, they're going to make it somewhere, they're going to go to the playoffs. It doesn't matter who's in the building. I mean, it's just part of what it is with the cowboys. And so, you know, needless to say, that was good to hear that because, you know, like we're sitting around. And of course, we're looking for that offensive performance that was all last year basically 34 points. But Goddy, right? I'm just saying, Goddy, right? Goddy, right? Goddy, Goddy, Goddy. And then like, expectations just came out of nowhere. Like, that's graduation day. Got the Goddy over there. What are y'all going to do with these two individuals? Yeah. But we're talking about the run game a little bit more. I want to know your thoughts on this. You talk about the run back we have Javante Williams back there. You know, he's more of a downhill, you know, three yards cloud of dust, kind of where the defense down. And I know we've done, the cowboys have done this in the past where, you know, you get, you know, kind of some speed, whether it's tarp in. I don't want to see CD Lamel anymore reverses or anything like that.

12:14But when it comes to the ground game, do you see them incorporating? Because we haven't seen it yet this season incorporating a little bit more of that tarp in package when it comes to trying to use in that speed out of the back. Yeah, I hope not. Okay. I hope not. Okay. What about more 12 personnel? So my thing is, and this is, this is what I think really tick them off. They wanted Jay on blue to be so good, so bad because he was supposed to be that home run threat. They were like, man, please pay attention. Hold on to the ball. Hold on to the ball. Hey, hey, just no, no, do it right. Please brother. And they, because literally they were like doing everything in their power to get Javante, to get Javante blue in that position because they understood it for this to work well. We need that change of pace back. We need that guy that's going to be able to pull jump a hole, right? Go through the, come out the back in.

13:14And when Javante didn't do it partly because of his own self and partly because Malik Davis was such a professional how he did it. So they were like, you know what? All right, he's going to be that guy. Then boom, he gets hurt. Yeah. And now you're looking around and you're trying to kind of, I'm assuming get DeMarcato and Goodson trying to get them up to speed because you do, Javante is not the back. And this day and age and football, that's going to give you what you need in this offense right now. He's part of it. Right. But you need that change of pace back. And they were looking to at two players that give it to him one, both of them, one didn't get it done, one got hurt. And so they're trying to find that, that, that, that, because Javante doesn't scare anybody. No, if I was a defender, I'd be like, 33 notice respect to him, but I'd just like, I'd rather play against a Javante style back. Yeah. Then jump cutting all over the place type of guy. You don't catch the ball out of backfield well, right? He's not a shifty guy. You, you know what you're getting with him. The, the, the worst that's going to happen is it's going to be a physical collision.

14:16And if you're a linebacker defensive in, defensive tackle, you're like cool. Cool. I'm a wrap you up. We're going to fall down to three yards. He doesn't scare you in an open field. He doesn't scare you. He doesn't have breakaway speed. He don't, he don't have the moves in the hole. So like I said, the, the, the, at, at worse, we're going to get a headache together. That's it. I'm not worried about you. I mean, being in the hole ready to go. You like, now you see me? Whoo. Now you don't. Ain't no McCoy or not. No, he's going to play. You there. I'm there. They're not. That's about the nightmare. Oh, mismatch for a line. And I run his screens with him. They're not doing none of the off off tackle funky stuff. None of that. Because he just doesn't have the game to do that. That is. Yeah. That's not, you know what I'm saying? Now what you were hoping for was because of you had the two dudes on the outside that that would give lighter boxes. But again, you don't have the pieces on the interior right now that with Tyler Smith missing that when they do give you a light box. That you can run into that light box because Tyler Smith is helping out open up some holes for Javante. So that's something I've noticed these first two games.

15:19I want to know your thoughts as well being an offensive guy. If that's worry some are not. But when you looked at the giant game, I've seen a lot of those the defense. They had a two high shell. A lot of it. And that like you said is a light box. Commanders. They had a lot of that to high shell as well. Trying to, you know, get the ball away from CD and George on that stuff and trying to keep that in corral. But yet the cowboy still haven't been able to expose that light box. I know they're missing Tyler Tyler Smith, which is a huge miss. Does that worry you and any regard that they're not able to take advantage of that that two high shell out there offensively in the running game in the running game. Yeah, in the running because passing it yet they still been able to eat. Yeah, I mean, I told guys last week when I watched the Washington film, I was like, if you all look for the beer Javante week, the same the week, the same the week. There's just teams now are more teams in the NFL now are geared towards not giving up the big plays and giving up the run game and underneath. They're just touching their guys up front that they're going to win their battles and they're saying we like we're going to play their percentages.

16:20We like our chances if it gets to a point where you know it's 34 35 that we can get off the field with that. Yeah, you know, I'm saying so like and again, the cowboys we don't have a threatening running back. And this we're talking about Javante. That's a tall hill. So you know my bias. Yeah, that's true. Dude, dude, dude, does either side of the ball have an identity right now? I mean, the office does we get into the office though. I will say the office to deep it out of 80. Is the office still the carrier from last year? Is that is that the identity or is it the same identity from last year? And last week was just a momentum builder for what's to come? I still feel as though this off you're only going to go as far as this offense can take you with this team with the Dallas Cowboys as long. And I believe it, you know, as long as you have four right there and you got, you know, those weapons on the outside. That's going to be your identity offensively because you like you say we don't have that back that you don't have that Z. You don't got that guy that you can just turn around handing football off to for a whole quarter and still be productive. I still believe the backbone or the identity of this team is the offense at least until it didn't even happen this year.

17:23But at least until that defense starts to find its own and kind of jealous a unit because right now defensively it's hard even fathom them having an identity after the first two weeks, which I knew us early and new seeing, but you don't even see the like you don't even see the. I don't even know what word to describe it when you talking about a defense you can see something like man I'm boys is painting or the boys and they find around the question you don't see that you know nothing pops off to take. It's just like damn just kind of mundane just like I got the job done but I yeah, you just you don't see that yet defensively so yeah, you know, well we got to take our first break. And when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more about some of the rookies of course and then we're going to still talk about that and what's going on with the offense. It's the player sounds right here at SWB stew. What is it? SWBC. We're right back. Every player in the league has a scouting report strengths weaknesses history tendencies, but what if somebody built a scouting report on you.

18:23Data brokers collect your personal stats your name address phone number family details and other private information then they package it up and legally sell it to anyone willing to pay. Then what the person buying your information may not be looking to draft you they may be looking to scam you steal your identity or start using your name like it belongs to them. That's where life lock comes in life locks automatic data broker removal tool helps find your exposed personal information and remove it from those data brokers. If you fall victim to identity theft life locks restoration specialists will block and tackle for you, which means they'll handle your case from start to finish and restore your identity guaranteed. Life lock is identity theft protection for the life you are building to get life lock at life lock dot com use the promo code football for up to 30% off your first year. That's life lock dot com code football again life lock dot com code football because isn't your identity worth protecting the people have spoken and McDonald's listened back by popular demand McDonald's is firing up your taste buds with the return of spicy McNuggets plus mighty hot sauce to turn up the heat.

19:34That's right McNuggets just got hotter you can taste it now the crispy crunch of a McNugget coated and seasoned perfectly with age cayenne and chili peppers and dialed up and dipped in the mighty hot sauce with a little more kick and just the touch of sweetness you can taste it. All right McDonald's packs plenty of flavor and spice into each bite and that should get your attention so grab some extra napkins get yourself to McDonald's now and spice up your day with the hot combo of spicy McNuggets and mighty hot sauce after all you can take the heat right get him while they're literally hot at participating McDonald's for a limited time. Only play your run in his chicken so what combo are you picking make it a perfect season we've got tailgates of hand batter cooked to order chicken fingers and cane sauce and jugs of freshly made tea and lemonade all available to order online or on our app this season is about to be unbeatable raising

20:38Cain's chicken fingers one love. Check out Aristocrats new is casino game NFL super grand champions the Dallas Cowboys are riding out to the championship and inviting super fans like you to score the winning touchdown join the team enjoy this fun game of football and your chance to compete in the NFL super grand championship. Find out where to play Aristocrats super grand champions at a casino near you at Aristocrat Gaming dot com. Do you have a gambling problem please contact 1 800 g a m b L. A. R. For fans 21 and over picture yourself making your morning coffee you know those few minutes while the water and the beans through their thing instead of scrolling what if you. A few video call the friend the neck with confidence knowing AT&T Internet backup is included at no extra cost guarantee so even in a rare fiber outage your wireless data can keep you connected a couple of call that's the new ritual Internet backup requires eligible AT&T wireless service activation and power source speeds vary AT&T may slow data speeds of the network is busy backup may not be available in all locations the ATT dot com slash guarantee for full details.

21:43Hey Cowboys fans keep Davis here for me Cowboys safety and football the best place come down to reading the moment making the call and hitting your money the same goes for your money blockchain dot com gives you the tools and information to make your next move with confidence because whether you're chasing the in zone or your next opportunity there's nothing better than getting it right on the money if that's like an icon with blockchain dot com visit blockchain dot com backslash Cowboys today to get started and learn more. Back to the players lounge.

22:43This segment is presented by Yeti officially licensed Yeti Cowboy gear is now available as stadium pro shops concessions and on Yeti dot com. Hold on now hold on what's that what's that now y'all get on bond trade who you who did you become right there. What you man that is not heard this boy. That's what he said. That's what you got. Oh this is jetties. Come on. You're really you're really you're really. Hey man. It might rub off when you're the low. Hold it you're becoming that. I don't listen to Jesse man. It's been the same boy. No it hasn't man. You got use you just showed us with that. This is you. You need dot com. And to get the right posture. Yeah. Welcome back to the players lounge. We got big church. Jesse Holly. I'm Anthony Doris. You know, we just in here talking a little cowboys football. Now before we took the break, we was definitely talking about the offense and we want to jump back into that little bit because we don't always get this offensive perspective.

23:45Yeah. I mean, so when it be coaching somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to see you right now talking about with the cowboys talking about going to you know now. Do you. Did you ever get a chance to have the country? I can't know. I was you. No. I think he was gone when I was a little bit hot. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, now that we're doing this and for everybody out there, you know, this is for football to have a much more broader reach throughout the world. The reason why we play in these games everywhere. But the all-view these games as like like. I guess you could say kind of like a distraction or is it still all business? No, because as football players, we all know this. We're very routine based. We're extremely routine based. Monday, I do this. Tuesday, I do this. Wednesday, I do this. Thursday, I do this Friday. You know what I'm saying? And so that you're they're leaving tonight. So whatever Thursday night routine was is off.

24:47Whatever my Friday routine was is off. Right? And then saying whatever if it was a home game or Saturday. You had your time to do what you need to do. And they get to the hotel. So it's a distraction in the sense of I now have to go way out of my way for the next couple of days. And that is always like, you know, and it's not a superstition. It's just a routine, man. Like we get into this routine of how we like to do everything. I had like on Mondays, I got a certain, I got a massage at a certain place. Right? So I would get acupuncture on Tuesdays. On Wednesdays, I knew that we had, and I was a heavy practice that day, right? Heavy padded practice that day. So I would get stretched at the end of that practice. Thursday was, we always go off and dinner that night with the guys, right? That was our guide night out on Friday, on Thursday. Friday, I got another massage. Right? That was a different type of massage in the first one.

25:47Right? You know what I'm saying? You had to flush out and then you got the deep tissue. And then you cleared it up and you were like, what kind of massage you get? You had it in the show. You had it in there. No. They didn't drop it. They were like, you had it in that robin crap. You're gonna flush out. You're gonna flush out. You're gonna flush out. You're gonna flush out. And so like all of that now is thrown off. So like, it's a disturbance. I wouldn't call it a distraction. It's a disturbance. But you still gotta keep it big because at the end of the day, when the loss goes count, it's gonna count. Like that tape, you were just like, they're gonna see that tape overseas. They ain't gonna say, oh, y'all playing it. They go looking to tape and play. This is what happened. This is what not happened. But I agree with you. It's more just throwing you off on your normal routine. So when we played here, when I was in Dallas and we went over there, I was glad because we went like on a Monday. So we was there the entire week. So like it was, it was, it was cool in that regard to where you got kind of, you know, kind of back into your rhythm a little bit before the game. But I can only imagine because they're leaving what tonight? Tonight.

26:47So you, I mean, you dare Friday Saturday's boom. And then you fly them right back. So yeah, I could throw them off a little bit. And it's a 10 hour flight, but they're on East Coast time, right? Is what I'm understanding. Is that Brazil's in? What is it? What is it Chris? It's two hours or one hour ahead of us. I'm not sure. I think I think it might be one of the time differences in that. And if I'm not mistaken, it's two hours ahead of us. Oh, so it's true. I was ahead. And Chris, tell me if I'm wrong. It's here in New York, New York, Brazil. So what? They're wanting to. New York, then the Brazil. Are you all taking a, uh, no, a straight flight. This straight from here. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I know some people talking about going. Yo, the cat. What's happening? Oh, my God. I was like, I thought, oh, my God. You're talking to the Gordier. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I know that's something that's that doing. Our gear made it to that. Okay, okay. Okay. All right. We sent most of them. We sent a lot of gear in like June. Got you. Okay. Oh, wow. Imagine that. But I will say this. You better have the right cleats when you plan over on those like soccer stadiums,

27:49style venues, because you know, I played over and London a bunch of times and the grass, it's just real slick, man. It's not, you know, it's definitely not the turf stuff that we used to, but it's not like that grass, either in the national. It's kind of longer. It's thicker and it's slicker, man. So it's like, they got to make it like that for that soccer ball. Yeah. That was the whole thing when it was bringing with the World Cup games and it was talking about the grass. I'm like, what are you bringing in grass for it? Because there's like that ball got to travel at a certain speed across the grass. So I was like, okay, that's something I never even thought about before. I used to hate playing. I don't know if y'all ever did, but you know, remember the seven stuff? I hate play, but you got to over there because it's so, so, they're so, they're playing stuff. And they all hate seven stuff. They already know they they got more rain than they normally get. So they were already saying that the field is bumpy and slick in certain places. NFL tried to send over some special type of tarp. You know, they cut. Yeah. They're too late now. You know what I mean? But they don't slow down Henry. And for those of you that don't know, I'm better talked about the seven studs. It's the amount of number of cleats that are, or the, the cleats that are at the bottom

28:53of the what you call, and they just, they get stuck in the ground, man. It's just terrible. It's so terrible. They feel heavy, heavy. The seven stud is more like the old school cleats. Right. People were back in the day. You can actually screw a man, screw him out. You can go longer. You got the half inch. You got the inch. You can just basically change up what you need. And of course, now today you see more motor, bottom shoes, the bill for speed and everything else like that. So yeah, that's already been the word. Make sure you guys several different types of cleats to wear. So, you know, hopefully, like you said, though, it had been a fit. The cowboys slowed there. They're there. Can we find a little bit of possible? But I remember when, you know, this is nothing to do with the cowboys, but my dad, I remember I think they were playing Notre Dame and they let the grass grow like almost like some crazy. They're the tourists for that. Yeah, he's still rush for like 300 yards. That's right. I'm not mad at the cowboys. Yeah, I'm just saying, you know, so let's jump into this whole thing with, with Dac a

29:54little bit because Dac is, is, is, is being Dac so far this year. You know, four touchdowns last week, broke Tony Ramos record for most regular season touchdown passes. I'm sure he would like to break the record for most post season touchdown passes too as well. Yeah, start back on when he broke it too. Yeah, you know, and, and then CD, I seen the slight, I mean, I see, I see the slight, you know, and of course, CD popped out last week, 153 yards, you know, saying and did his thing. You know, so with the offense, looking the way that they're doing, but this is what I, when we was talking about the run game a little bit earlier, with, and I hate to say his name wrong, Span of Forts, the brevids, before, okay. Now, he's blocking like, and, and we've seen it like, yeah, he's been doing this thing. And this is one thing that I've never really seen a Cowboys do. And I asked about it early, like going to more like a, a 12 formation, 12 personnel formation and literally trying to establish and trying to create that running game, understanding

30:56that they're missing their best guard and one of the best guards in the league, but at the same time to just try to create some balance throughout the course of the game. If you can't do it with your regular personnel, 21 personnel, 11 personnel, you bring another big body in there, hopefully to be able to help out with the blocking situation. Do you see that ever being like a situation here because at some point in time, the identity of the Cowboys is throwing the ball. We know that. You don't control the clock like that. So we got to get to a place at some point in time where like this offense can literally control the clock. Yeah. Do you see that maybe as a switch up or a change up to something that could be coming up or you know, like, yeah, they tried it. They're focusing on knocking to the running back. Oh, that's right. They tried it. They tried it. They tried it. Then from the backside. That's it. And when the ball won't come in this way, you get out to the running back from the backside. So it's like, and I say this jokingly, but I also said this, it's, you know, they always say there's a lot of seriousness in every joke, but your head coach is also your officer

32:02coordinator. It's also a former quarterback. It don't take much for him to abandon the running game. For the back, I want to throw the ball. It's a lie. It's a lie. It's a, it's a former quarterback. I'm a former vice-receiver. Okay. It's a, it's in you. I thought you were. Yeah. I was trying to be thrown as much. Hey, coach, you want to throw. Sure. I'll run all around you. So they ain't trying to stick to it much. They're like, well, we'll do it because we got to do it, but in it, I can only imagine as a play caller as you're looking at your sheet and you're, you're like, oh, boy, we're not really getting the running game going on. You're like, well, I do got CD-Lam and George Pickens. Yeah, for real. You know what I'm saying? You're like, guys, man. You're like, hey, I run Javante up the middle again. Yeah. Okay. You know what, throw a slant. Yeah. Yeah. Get the ball out. Hey, throw a smoke screen. Get the ball to the GP head. Yeah. So to your point is they tried. They tried.

33:03They just, there's too many holes up front. Like Tyler Smith not being there's, yes, but also steel has regressed. He's a really good runbine. Yeah. I don't know what's going on with this. He's regressed. You know what I mean? And so now in the run game, you're creating all of these holes. So guys are getting knocked back. Garts can't get, can't get off pull because the, the, the, the, the center can't get over. It's, it's a lot going on up front that doesn't give you a level of comfortability and confidence that we're going to just keep running this football. And then the one run that you had a week ago, the one run that you had, you were like, oh, we finally broke one. Like bringing on back, bringing on back. Joe Pickens holding. I think that got the longest run this year. He, I think it was, I read it was like 11 yards. That's a long, I believe. I believe. No, no, no, I got to ask both of you all this and, you know, I'm not trying to jab either one of y'all. What was the best record of the team that you played for when you were the Cowboys? We won the division. Uh, what was that?

34:042010, 11? 10, 10 we was triad. That was 11. That was 11. That was 11. 11? Now I might have been, oh, now, y'all was cold and old. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, about 11, 12 games, something like that. Yeah, y'all was cold. Yeah. I think I think that's what it was. Go about you. Um, the best. 12. 12 and 4 and 14, but we were 13 and 3 and 16. We had number one C and 16 and that, that year, um, offensively we, I mean, I had number one C and I got put out. We got put out. We were 11 and five. And the five, but we were so young, man. Was it 11 and five and 09? We was 11. Yeah, yeah, it was a level of five. Yeah, it was 11 and five. in 2005 and in 2009. Yeah, that was that was yeah. 10, yeah, we sucked in 2010. We said that we were. That's what we said. That's what I took over half. Yeah, I'm gonna play off to no nine too. We won a division. We won a division. Yeah. We won a division. Yeah, then we was eight and eight. That's when Zeke went crazy. My that 13 three years when you know, rookie Zeke was out there. He was going crazy.

35:04So they had a lot of balance back then. Yeah, but they also had a hell of an officer. Oh, I'm talking about tyrants. Tyrants. That's exact. Fredrick's. Fredrick was in the duck free. No free. Right. We had an old line. Yeah. And you still had Jason Whit was still around. Hey, Whit was still doing this thing. He was a left tackle extended. Exactly. Right tackle extended and then we're free went down. We still had Jeremy Parnell who was the swing tackle who came in there and played like six games and paid. Got back to the next. Yeah. That's the question like before me even finishing it because my next thing was going to be like, so when you got punched in the mouth, and those seasons like who did y'all look to for the leadership in the locker room? But y'all just like everybody's just named. Oh, yeah, we had a better led team. Oh, man. I mean, the locker room that we had in 2009, we're talking about the Marcus wears in there. Marcus Spears is a pretty, Brady James, Tony Romo, Jason Whit, he knew was out there. He knew Maryam Barber. So like we had, you know, we, I mean, we, we,

36:06that's oh, now we had, we had J. Ratliffe, Andre Garard, yeah. Like it was, it was, we didn't like for leadership in the locker room. Like you know, they're like, it was, it was, didn't offensive like, like even offensive line then you had big Leonard Davis. You had Mark Colombo, you had Doug Frey. You had Kyle Kosher. Yeah. Yeah, like so we didn't shit go down. So it wasn't, we didn't like for him. We released me into the next part of it was like, who's the leader like in the locker room now or on the team period? Like when you visualize, who, who are those guys now? I mean, you got four. Okay. Sure. That for sure is one of the best leaders I've ever been around. But man, I'll side of that and I get to think and I'm like, who's, you know, not only the leader, but the vocal guy as well. Right. And on the defensive side of the football, I mean, they're so young. I don't really see, you know, of course, you would love it to be, you know, the Quinnins or the Ken and Clarks of the world. But those guys to me don't seem very vocal. I guess just not in their personality to be that raw, raw guy. I'm going to go lead back.

37:07For example, which is an amazing trait to be. It'd be a leader back example. But I don't really see a guy that that voice. Yes. Well, see, yeah, there's a problem. And both of you guys know this. It's like, it's one thing to lead. But when you're not playing well, it's tough to lose. I know. I don't listen. It's enough. So you're like, you're like, you're talking about Quinn and Williams, right? Like, like, Quinn, you would say that Quinn is the, the, the unspoken leader of the defense, right? I'm not going to lie. I'm not lying to you. So it's going to be that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So like even, even personally, you try to come in and be like, you know, come on, guys, come on, guys. Come on, guys. They like, well, you just got to use this guy. You ain't like it. Yeah. So it becomes tough when you're not playing well to be that vocal leader. You know, you got, you know, they brought in, you know, the, you know, team Ra Ra in and as you call himself the Hall of Fame team made it Von Miller, right? But team Ra Ra Ra is crazy.

38:07No. Y'all, y'all, y'all pumping this up. Y'all guys. No, what he said, I didn't say that. He dumped himself on the, he dumped himself. He made an interview in the field history. That was him. So you would, you would like to lean on that on, on, on, right? Right. But he ain't playing. That's what I'm saying. It's tough. It's tough when you're not playing well or you're not playing to be trying to lead. That's true. So when we, so, so as, as we try to figure out how to get this defense out of the hole, no leadership, no identity, you know what I mean? Like, come on, Christian Parker. Hey. And, and, and I hate to say this, but, you know, in, in CP, like you said, you, he's, he's, he's got to be, he's got to be the guy to kind of get this, this thing under control. He got to kind of be the guy to put his hands on, not saying put his hands on people, but like, get this thing going in the right direction. Cause like, like, put your hands on bar and I'm on the side. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, you, and I get it, they made up and, you know, gave them football on the next

39:08game, but to me, and I, and maybe I'm old school about this, but if you, if I'm, if I'm one of 10, if I'm sitting there, I'm, I'm one of the defense side of football. I'm looking down at the bench, and I see my, the rookie, you know, rookie, he could be a great player, but hasn't done much. And you all hear waving the DC off, like, man, get out of my face, man, walk on the way. I'm just, I'm looking at it like, man, so that's how that's how it is. That's how it is. This is looking like if I'm new to the team, like if I came from, I'm free agent from somewhere, and I'm looking like, dang, that's how, that's how y'all treat y'all DC. That's how y'all talk to DC. And so Christian Parker is in a very unique and difficult situation. One, welcome to the Dallas Cowboys Christian Parker. This is what happens here when you don't go, when there's a high expectation that you don't go well, your name never get out of the news, right? Like your name never gets out of the news. But I think he's a very confident young man, and I say young man respectfully. I think he has a great plan.

40:09The problem is when you're playing and your players, and they don't match, you start swimming. Now like, because if you're Christian Parker, to your points, what do I have to build on? At least I can go, I, I cool. My defense can stop the run. Cool. I'm a worker in this communication and this coverage. Or, hey, my communication and my coverage on the back end. Great. Cool. I don't have to worry about that. I can focus my attention on stopping this run. Run ain't working well. You ain't tackling well. Still miscommunicating, and you still struggling in coverage. He's like this. He's like, what do I start? And I only got, you know, we're in the day and time now where you only get a curtain, you only get 90 minutes out in the morning. That's instant grits. You better act. You get 90 minutes out in the morning. You better get it that quick. Somebody report you. Real quick. You'll be fine and mis-and-draft picks. So you don't get much field time.

41:10And I said this, I said this on on on on my show earlier a couple days ago. You defense the players. And it's the same offensively, but defense the players. You come out of training camp. Here's our identity. Here's our foundation. Week one, we go out there. We want to play really well because week two, we want to take that and then we want to add a new wrinkle. Week three, we want to take what we did in week one and week two. How that foundation at two more wrinkles. So that by the time I get to mid season, now I got my cover six disguise. I got my four disguise, my two disguise. We got blitzed set off of it. Well, you come out of training camp and you have a foundation. Still trying to find your identity. Week one, you go out there and it is crap. I'm working. So what do I have to do week two? I got to spend all my time week two trying to fix week one. Trying to fix week one. Mm-hmm. Right? So then I get to week three and now I'm still trying to, I'm not adding pieces onto the, to the situation. I'm, I'm fixing what happened in week one and week two.

42:10Yeah. So now at what point in time do I get to advance this process where I can maybe use twin and indifferent areas? Where I can use Caleb in different areas where I can use this blitz or that blitz. Oh, by the way, I'm missing four starters on defense. Mm-hmm. So now, am I comfortable at night going, well, this safety be able to cover this? Will that be able to be a couple of this? Will they get this on? I got a rookie linebacker. He sometimes gets the swimming. So I can't put too much on his plate. But then they get out saying, dude, the green dot, that's what I don't. What else you're going to do? Man. Now, so I say you give them the green dot in this situation because him having a green dot now, Jay, Sean barham's we talk about, Jay, Sean barham having a green dot in September is not for September. Right. It's for December. Okay. And let me, let me cut you off there because we got to take our second break. Okay. And when we come back, we're going to jump right back into that defense. And we're going to talk a little bit about how the rookies are fair and NFL so far this year.

43:10And it's the players on stay right here. We'll be right back. Every player in the league has a scouting report. Banks, weaknesses, history, tendencies, but what if somebody built a scouting report on you? Data brokers collect your personal stats, your name, address, phone number, family details and other private information. Then they package it up and legally sell it to anyone willing to pay. Then what? The person buying your information may not be looking to draft you. They may be looking to scam you steal your identity or start using your name like it belongs to them. That's where life lock comes in. Life lock's automatic data broker removal tool helps find your exposed personal information and remove it from those data brokers. If you fall victim to identity theft, life locks restoration specialists will block and tackle for you, which means they'll handle your case from start to finish and restore your identity guaranteed. Life lock is identity theft protection for the life you are building to get life lock at lifelock.com. Use the promo code football for up to 30% off your first year.

44:11It's life lock dot com code football. Again, life lock dot com code football because isn't your identity worth protecting? The people have spoken and McDonald's listened back by popular demand. McDonald's is firing up your taste buds with the return of spicy McNuggets plus mighty hot sauce to turn up the heat. That's right. McNuggets just got hotter. You can taste it now. The crispy crunch of a McNugget coated and seasoned perfectly with aged cayenne and chili peppers and dialed up and dipped in the mighty hot sauce with a little more kick and just the touch of sweetness. You can taste it. Ow right. McDonald's packs plenty of flavor and spice into each bite and that should get your attention. So grab some extra napkins. Get yourself to a McDonald's now and spice up your day with the hot combo of spicy McNuggets and mighty hot sauce. After all, you can take the heat right. Get them while they're literally hot at participating McDonald's for a limited time.

45:11Check out Aristocrats' new Escasino game, NFL Super Grand Champions. The Dallas Cowboys are riding out to the championship and inviting super fans like you to score the winning touchdown. Join the team. Enjoy this fun game of football and your chance to compete in the NFL Super Grand Championship. Find out where to play Aristocrats Super Grand Champions at a casino near you at Aristocratsgaming.com. Do you have a gambling problem? Please contact 1-800-GANBLER. For fans, 21 and over. Cowboy Nation. I'm Keith Davis, former Cowboy safely. He's Davis, in the end zone. In Dallas, we know a thing or two about making the right move at the right time. Know the terrain. Trust your read. And when the opening comes, take it. With blockchain.com, you can make your move with confidence right on the moon. Invest like an icon with blockchain.com. Visit blockchain.com, backslash Cowboys today. Get started and learn more. Picture yourself making your morning coffee.

46:13You know those few minutes while the water and the beans do their thing? Instead of scrolling, what if you video call the friend? The net with confidence. Knowing AT&T Internet backup is included in no extra cost. Arenti, so even in a rare fiber outage, your wireless data can keep you connected. A company call? That's the new ritual. Internet backup requires eligible AT&T wireless service, activation and power source. Speed's varied. AT&T may slow data speeds if the network is busy. The backup may not be available in all locations. AT&T.com slash guarantee for full details. Raising Cainz presents the other rules of football. Rule one. Any broadcast without the express edition of Cook to Order Cainz Chicken Fingers is prohibited. Rule 12. No crinkle cut fries, Texas toast or craveable Cainz sauce constitutes an illegal formation. And rule 31. Anybody who loves to feed their game face is an eligible receiver of Cainz. And it comes to winning game day Cainz rules raising Cainz chicken fingers. One love. Go Cowboys. Back to the players lounge.

47:17It's the players lounge right here at SWB studio at WBC studio. Now before we left, we were talking a little bit about what was going on with the offense and we talked a little bit about the defense too as well. And Jesse was hitting on the whole pact about, you know, we talked about defense not having an identity, but he was leading into the whole thing about basically the corrections and how many things, you know, Christian Parker has basically had the work on. One of the things like, and we know this, we all knew this, you know what I mean? The point that you made is a lot of times, you know, a DC may go into a situation just like you say, we only have to fix one thing. CP came and he had to fix the entire defense. You know what I mean? So go ahead and finish expiring on that a little bit and just finish breaking it down to the point where like some of the viewers understand because we talk about it all the

48:19time. Right. But to hear you talk about it. Yeah, no, like like I said, they killed, it is also part of the thing. They killed about Eber Flues last year. And I was on the hill of we got to put some of the blame on the players too now. Like, but the last year they kept saying he don't, the carpentry don't got his tools. He didn't have his tools. He didn't. Well, the 13th of the play that he had last year, I'm not even in the NFL. In the NFL at all. At all. Okay. So that's what I'm saying. Not playing. Right. Stay at home. Right. So I understand that part of it. You know what I'm saying? This, this team wasn't built the same way. This, this, this defense now had a chance to grow out. They had a chance to get into the house and that's why there's no excuses. That's why there's no excuses. Okay. Right. Because now I'm even here. People talk about like, oh, Quinn Williams is playing. Not you, because they said last year, Matthew from say his scheme is not fitting these players. I've been here and all week people saying that the scheme don't fit Quinn and Williams now. Which is why they come up. He's supposed to be. If you get in the hunt, you're supposed, it don't matter what the scheme is.

49:20You're supposed to be a dominant player. If you're playing at the start, if you're playing over it, you know, Booker T. Washington come on. No matter. You're supposed to be. Come on. Come on. Come on. And this is the scheme that he's already played in. And when you look, when you look at dudes like and and not the those shade at Quinn and nobody else, but when you look at dudes like who played in this league, like Warren Sap who played for multiple teams and don't matter where he put his hand and the dirt at. Sap was sap. You know what I mean? He was going to be productive and everything else like that. And of course, we knew Quinn was one of the top detaquers in the league before it. When you were just for a long time, you know, for a long time. So my thought process with it is, what does happen? Like, is he not quitting no more? You know, like, and is it so much the scheme that is like limiting him because he's played in this in this type of scheme before? Yeah. Um, I personally think, now this is, I don't have any information from anybody. This is not me inside talking to nobody. I personally think he's banged up.

50:21Yeah. There's something that is going on that he hasn't yet vocalized because he understands the magnitude and the gravitas of, man, I got to be this for this defense. I got to be the guy. I got this new extension. They looking at me to be this. I'm a team captain. I'm on a leadership committee, counsel, whatever it's called. I can't, I can't come up a lane early in the season. I told you know, me and Dak had the conversation. Hey, I never been to the playoffs. Dak said, I'ma get you there, but you got to get me over the hump. I told him I'ma get him over the hump. Now I'ma come up short two weeks into the season. You don't look at self. It's done. Look at self. Like, like the only position to me that has the major gist one day, they good. The next day they not is running back. They, nobody has a cliff fall like a running back. Yeah, that's true. They have a cliff die. Normally, there's a progressive deterioration for other positions. You know what I'm saying? Receiver running back DB. They can't run. You know what I'm saying? It's slowly slowly. You start to say like, oh, he, he, here go.

51:23Yeah. And, and, and, and, I mean, hell, Kaleis Campbell, 137 years old. Yeah, bro. I play with him in Jacksonville. He's still doing it. He's just, this year at 18, 19, 18 or 19. He's still doing it for the, for, for the Ravens. I'd be your 20. I think he came in at OSU. Like, you, you don't go from being a year ago. I, this is how a year ago, Quinn Williams, a year ago, was still talked about in the conversation with, with sexy dexie and Jeffrey, Jeffrey Simmons and, and, and, and, and Chris Jones. Like you didn't get too far down the list before you with all your Quinn waves. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, he ain't, he ain't that far removed from that. So, so to see the rest of those guys dominating, hell, Aaron, Aaron Donnell came back off two years off and he played well. Retackles attack. So, they're has to, in my opinion, there has to be something physically going on with him that he's just not talking about today. Yeah. And, like, like, you just mentioned, the guy that you mentioned, uh, Dexter Lawrence,

52:23you see his impact that he's having in Cincinnati who was known for having, you know, bottom of the barrel type defense in the past couple of years. They insert him, and he, he's making a big time impact. Oh, sure. That's the type of impact I would assume to, to see from a Quinn Williams, a guy that's necessary. He's, he's got a necessary, and that's why the difference is it because they're, you're not getting, you're not getting the runstopping penetration, keeping those guards and centers off your linebackers that you need from the guys in the interior and you, you banked and gambled on it being Quinn Williams and Kenny Clark. Mm-hmm. You let, oh boy, go to San Francisco because you say, ah, you ain't fit this game. These are the guys I need in here. And right now, they're not producing. And that's when you have the, now the second effect of that is your linebacker play, right? Your linebackers are getting blocked and they getting reached and now, you know, you got a young kid in there and he's kind of learning as the, you know, as the game is happening. So he's going to have his mistakes.

53:24He's going to make some of his errors and you couple that together. You like, duh, we, we struggling out here. Somebody got a win on one on one. So somebody, somebody got to be able to win a one on one out there. Well, you know, you talked about guys not producing, but segue into some guys who are actually producing and, you know, I don't know if you guys noticed, but the Cowboys, their rookies have been, you know, some of the best rookies in the league this year between, I'm sorry, Caleb Downs and, and Barham, they're, they're great now too, as far as what it was, it's the pro football players, the, the player, where's it at? The PFF group. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Caleb Downs is one of the top safeties. He's one of the top rookie safeties, but he's also one of the top six safeties in the league, period right now. Barham scored out last week at 85, 80, almost to 85% grade with the green dot, okay? And so that in itself, he, you know, like he, he basically turned this whole game around that. And then Malachi Lawrence, of course, quiet as kept is like in the top six, the top five

54:26edge rushers and one of the best rookie edge rushers in the league right now. I wonder how they grade that like what the edge were like, how do they, because it has he got my kind of colors. I got it. Yeah, he doesn't have a sack. He might, oh, pressure. Okay. He might, yeah. Okay. So like his, his, his snap per pressures has been off the chain. So like I said, he's fifth among all edge rushers in NFL. Yeah. That's big time. With his grade, you know, and I, you know, these young guys, especially Caleb Downs, you know, we talked about it yesterday. You know, he's, I think he's playing outstanding football for a rookie learning safety and nickelback. Uh, to me is extremely tough, especially being in your rookie season. And, but like I said yesterday, man, if this defense wants to get word in these, it's a B. Your best players can't be, you know, two rookies out there, especially two rookies on the second level. Now, you got to have impactful positions being your best players. And as much as I love this safety position, it's just not as impactful unless you had a A.R. Or a Troy Palomalu, that's going to be able to impact the game at that magnitude of a level. We know as DB's if it ain't cracking the front.

55:28It ain't going to be cracking in the back. I'm about that. So, hey, look, thanks for joining us today. Jesse, thanks for putting them in. We appreciate it. You know, man, it's been the players' lounds, you know what I'm saying? And we will be back tomorrow, make sure you check this out. I'll be baby. Thank you again, players' lounds. This has been a production of DallasCabboys.com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. How much is Cowboys? Yeah! Scams don't always look like scams anymore. AI can make a fake ticket offer, look legit, or a sports book text sound official. And once an identity thief gets your personal information and starts using your name, then what? LifeLock helps detect potential, identity threats, and suspicious activity. And if identity theft happens, LifeLock's restoration specialists help restore your identity. Guaranteed, it's identity theft protection for the life you are building.

56:29Get LifeLock at LifeLock.com, use the code football for up to 30% off your first year. That's LifeLock.com code football, because isn't your identity worth protecting?