The following. He's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. Cowboys. This is Media Match, a roundtable of Cowboys insiders dropping wisdom on the current state of your Dallas Cowboys. Now your host, Newy Scrugs Media Match on Tuesday. Let's right right, writing better than Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos for your no doubt about that. Watching Monday Night football made me appreciate Mike McCarthy. A lot of Cowboy fans were unhappy. They're like, may should throwing the flag there matter you could have one of those two guys, Staley or Hacket as your head coach because everything they did was terrible. Yesterday that was that looked like Thursday night football. That game was so bad. It was awful to watch, awful to watch. But let's get into some Cowboys here with Rob Phillip Dallas Cows dot Com, Nick Eatmandow Scott Boys dot Com. John was showed up of the athletic I knew we Scrugs tomorrow forward his back, he'll be practicing. I'm kind of excited. Oh, I mean, I don't know, Yeah, is it gonna happen? You'll hit me with the wet blanket. Okay, Oh, I mean, oh, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen to happen tomorrow. Yeah, sure. It's just it's just like there's there's some stretching and then there's a little bit of throwing, and then it'll be some left handed and he's gonna punt. He's gonna have it taped up because he's like gonna be like, Hi, everyone's gonna be taking a picture of it, and he's gonna everyone leaves and he can go out and he's just gonna dice it up. So I don't know, man, I got there early. Uh. I know, you guys were there too for the game, and I thought you looked pretty good. Now, of course he's throwing, there's no defense and he's just thrown on air. But I thought it was really impressive because we they've done a good job of not allowing us to see very much, and so to be there he's throwing it, and which was kind of an awkward thing because when you get into the stadium, the only people that are there aretty much sadium workers and they're sitting there and you're just like, why are you videotaping all this stuff? And it's like, well, we normally don't get to watching this. I want to tweet out a couple of videos or whatever. So he threw about fifty times, and I don't know, I thought he looked pretty good. And then the ultimate, the biggest thing, the most obvious one to me is this is just absolutely the perfect get right team that you're playing against. I mean, you couldn't ask for about our team. You're at home. You haven't a formed educated opinion about. They're the worst of the team they're playing too. They're they're the worst defense in the NFL. There's not a better time to bring him back than against this opponent. The next two games, yeah, and then the bye week and then and then the big McCarthy game going back to Green Bay. But yeah, the other thing too, he was taking staffs from center. I wasn't there this. Yeah, So that was the other thing we have not seen at all. We seen him throw, you know, some routes on air, but doing that, that's part of this offense too. I would be shocked if he's not back Sunday. Yeah. The reason I said I was excited about for coming back is we've seen the offense when four football games with Cooper Rush and they're running the ball. I don't think that Kellen Moore should change what he's doing at all. Keep running the football here and with a better quarterback. Now you got a shot at scoring twenty four twenty six points a game. And if your offense can get out twenty four twenty six points a game. But the way this defense is going, this team should win a lot of football games. Arrest of the way. Here's the thing a lot of people will talk about, Oh, is Dak going to change his game. He needs to change his game. He needs to play more like like Cooper Rush did. I definitely would never say that, but I do think it's interesting that he was on the sideline for these five games and he got to watch what will be unquestionably the best defense that he has played with in his career. And so when you see that, it's one thing that I'm you know, hey, I'm sure he knew times last year he sees Michael Parsons practice, you know, you go out to the training camp. I'm sure he knew it was going to be a really good defense. It's another thing to just see how dominant they've been and how well they've played during this stretch that even to him, he's got to kind of be like uncertain throws. I don't really need to risk it here, you know what, I can just take this. Let's just live to play another down. Because there was times when obviously was the quarterback of this team where it's like Jack, if you don't put up thirty five, I don't know if we're gonna have a chance in this game. And that's not the case anymore. Agree with that, And like he's never really had this defense. And also, you know, I think that just the threat of him running, he doesn't have to go and take off all the time like the other guys. But you know, there was a play early in the game where it was like third and two and it was a run pass option and he and Cooper RUSSI the reads take it and that's just not his game. And I hope that that would be Dax game. And you know, I don't know if y'all noticed this and the game the other night, but the run pass option hurt the Cowboys on defense just a little bit. You know, it hurts. I mean, I thought hurts hurts his running ability killed the Cowboys, and it wasn't because it was this game. It was because they were scared about all the other games and therefore they were worried about him and then Miles Sanders just gashing him for thirteen rpo of he works, doesn't work with Cooper rush. I think it'll work more with Dak. Yeah, and we think probably another year removed from the ankle injury, that he's going to be more involved doing that. And it's always been a nice red zone threat for them, especially inside the twenty. With Dak being able to do that, and maybe they can raise it from that standpoint. I said, I'm talking Cowboys this morning, like bringing up your point, KNEWI about the same offense, Like, there's nothing wrong with that. I think there is a sentiment out there that he's a forty million dollars man, so it needs to be all on his shoulders. How's it working out for Aaron Rodgers right now without some of the talent that he's had around him in the past, You know, like it's okay to have a nice support system and an offense that doesn't rely on you solely to make plays. And Troikman had a great offensive line a great running game. I'm not saying it's the same offense here, but you know what I mean, It's okay. He doesn't have to do it all himself. Troy the most he ever threw touchdowns in the season twenty three and still has a spot in Canton. I just think that Dak's coming back. It's a Lions team that you should be able to beat. So need the role out here forty times. You don't need to throw it forty times. You've got a defense that is winning games. And we were at the McCarthy press conference and he said, we are a defensive football team. So if you're defensive football team, you know what you need to do. You need to keep them off the field. You guys were at the game. I was thirty four minutes and thirty seconds on the field. I'm sorry, that's too much for any defense. You're just you're asking thirty four minutes, thirty four thirty seconds, three turnovers. You're asking to get beat. If this team is on the field for twenty five minutes and you've got no turnovers and Dak Prescott is back, I like the Cowboys chances to win a lot of a lot of football games. The rest of the way. I just hope Kellen Moore will stick to what's been going on here because I think this is the formula for they can actually do something and take this into the playoffs and win with this. Well again, that's why this is the perfect team to play against. It's the worst rush defense in the NFL by far, worst rushed defense, and even that Cowboys how bad it was two years ago, a team that has not won on the road since twenty twenty. This, I mean, this sets up perfectly for you to run the ball, get right in the run game. I'm not that they ran the ball pretty well against Philly, but you don't. Dak doesn't have to go out there and throw a bunch. He can kind of, you can work him in. If there's a little bit of rust early on, hey, then then you know maybe he you know, he can work through it. But uh, this I like again, I just think you could win this game with any of your quarterbacks. So this is just the perfect perfect game for him. The comeback. I don't think the Eagles have given up more than twenty points to anyone except for the Lions. That Week one game is weird to me because it wasn't a like thirty eight thirty five. They can score points. Yeah, they can't stop anyone, but but they can score now that they can shut out in New England, right, Yeah, they just got shut out in New England. And I also think that this is probably the angriest that the Cowboys defense has been all season. With the way that they played. I expect them not to come in this game and take anyone lightly, especially when you have coaches harping on the mistackles. That's something that usually when that happens in a week, the following week, there aren't as many mistackles that that part gets cleaned up. How many times of dan Quincy was pissed off yesterday I don't know quite probably ten ten mis tackles, ten pissed off? Yeah, yeah, I think for the Cowboy coaches, I said Monday, this is this is Yeah, you don't want to lose, but this is a good way to lose in terms of all right, now, you've got a lot of teaching points. You can come out here and point things out and say, hey, look, this has got to be better. That's got to be better. And you just faced you know, an Eagles team that's still unbeaten it. Now you're in third place, so I think they're gonna have a whole lot of folks attention here. Let flip this to the other side. Dan Campbell, former Dallas Cowboy tight end. We were here and remember that Dan was the starting tight end and the backup was some dude named Jason went and taking third round out of Tennessee. I watched Hard Knocks and I saw so many people across the country get sold on Dan Campbell. I like Dan, I do, but watching that stuff, I'm like, man, that's high school stuff. Man, this is National Football League. That stuff's not going to carry very long. It's good for the cameras. But seventeen weeks, I'm sorry, and now we're looking at teams just won one football game here and they are struggling. They went and they took on New England, got shut out. I mean that Pat Matt Patricia revenge game. I mean, that was that was something to see. But I am you're you're the You're the Michigan native. I'm worried this is about to turn into another Oh well, this is the line type of season, man, Yeah, of course, I mean that's just how I mean this is not. It's not small sample size, like there's not five ten years. I mean this is going back to the fifties. So yeah, no, this line's up. But to your point on the Dan Campbell thing, I was thinking about this before the game when we were eating in the press box in Philly and I asked Clarence and few others about this. I was like, uh, you know, college football and pro football, how many times is the guy that gets hired and is the ra ra guy that the fans all love. How many times is that does that person end up really meeting expectations or exceeding him Most of the time they disappoint because that fans stuff is great, and that raw Ross stuff is great, and then you gotta do that thing where it's, oh, yeah, you gotta coach on Saturday, you gotta coach on Sunday. That's the stuff that matters. It really is you can completely hate a guy like I'll give you a great exam perfect one I'm coming up with right now that I've seen, and not to take it too far into college football, but is that Notre Dame? You know LSU fans can't stand Brian Kelly, you know, Notre Dame gets a guy that they're all raw rather, Hey, this is our guy. He wants to be here, and then you're just kind of like yeah. But then on Saturdays you still have to be able to coach, and Brian Kelly can coach on Saturdays. You might not like him as a person, the guy can coach absolutely, Oh yeah, man, he was up there boomso yeah yeah, and that whole thing. Jim Harball at Michigan. Man who here doing rap videos? Who's got it better than us? Nobody got a great recruiting class. He's taking, taking folks over to Europe and down here to the South and that that's stuff. It's different with the NFL a little bit because who's like, I can't think of an NFL coach that like the fan when they right when they got the fan base was just so fired up and then it worked out that's where I was going. And who who's been a while? Who's the coaching, Who's who's the guy coaching? Who are the players? Because if you've got good players, it doesn't matter. Not not that coaching doesn't matter and your messages doesn't matter, but um, there's certain situations where guys step into jobs and if they just don't have the quarterback or enough guys to really make plays on Sunday, the messages, it doesn't it doesn't ring true ultimately in the box score. So, um, he's they They've taken steps. I think he's just trying to change the culture. He's trying to bring some excitement to this franchise. You know all about it, John, Like it's just not The kneecap stuff is good, I think, you know, but but again, they got to have enough players get done, you know. And that's what I said this morning on our show, is that you know, Dad did a nice job of throwing the ball, looked great. One thing it didn't get was hit obviously. And you wonder if if you're teaching, if your message is we're gonna bite someone's kneecap when we come up, I bet we're going to hit someone in the thumb. Yeah, you know what I mean, Like, we're gonna we're gonna be that, you know. So that's what I wonder is is they're gonna be fired up for him. He's coming back to the Cowboys and the Texas A and M guy and Aaron Glenn's a defensive coordinator. I mean, you know, they both played here together and all that, and they'll be fired up and all that. You wonder, Dad, you know you're gonna take any shots like that. I'm not saying Detroit's dirty team or whatever. They're gonna be aggressive. I mean, their head coach said it a hundred times. And the press conference he kept going and kept going and saying, I'm gonna do this. We're gonna take out another hunk. Yeah, We're gonna take another hunker. It's like, all right, we get it, Dan, you know, so you wonder how aggressive the team is going to be coming in here. One other thing I want to say about the fan thing real quick. What I was going to finish up with is just a fact of probably the guy that the fans wanted the least to stay as coach in Detroit was Jim Calwell. Fans didn't want that. That's the best coach that they've had in a long time. And just interesting how that works out. Substance. Yeah, you know that that's the thing that somebody folks miss out on. It just absolute substance there. Okay, let's hit a break in here, Dalton Schultz. I want to dive into the Cowboys tight in how much are they missing him when they get him back? And then also the future for Dalton Shoultz. There's a very interesting topic. Rob Phillips, Nick Eatman, John showed I'm nui scuts. This is the mediamash on Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the cheetah Savannah. Todd believed the big cat repellent he bought online was reliable, and now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run eighty miles per hour. But the good news is Todd has at and T five G. It is fast, reliable and secure, and he learned the best thing to do is stop running and toss her the backpack with the beef stew At and T five G. Fast, reliable, secure, It's not complicated. Five G requires compatible plan and device five G may not be available in your areas. He att dot com slash five G for you for details. So what do you call a group of grown men and women with their faces painted silver and blue who get together every week to share a three hour long ritual of jumping, sinking and toasting. Miller Lite and Tim gallant hats while yelling how about them cowboys? You call it Miller time and Dallas, here's to the cowboys, Here's to the original light beer. It's Miller Time. Celebrate Responsibly, twenty twenty one, Miller Brewing Company, fort Orts, Texas. When you build, you start with the foundation, and homeownership is a foundation of a stable future. The Bank of America Community Homeownership Commitment has helped over thirty four thousand people lay the ground work so far. With up to ten thousand dollars to at your down payment or three percent of the purchase price, whichever is less, the satisfaction of owning your own place can become a reality. Visit Bank of America dot com slash homeowner to learn more. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America an a equal housing lender, credit and collateral supt to approval restrictions apply. This is not a commitment to lend. The season is finally here. For months, we've been gearing up to win. Now it's time for the team that performs on any field. United egg in Turf with John Deer zero turns for mowing, compact tractors for loading, many excavators for digging, Gator Utility vehicles for hauling, implements for grading, Hey Tools for bailing, United Aggin Turf for winning the official Laggin Turf equipment supplier of the Dallas Cowboys. Visit United Agginturf dot com for more. Back to mediamash Mediamash Here on a Tuesday, Cowboys have the day off. The return to practice Wednesdays, they get ready to face the one and four Detroit Lions Sunday at noon at at and T Stadium. Rob Phillips, Dallascowboys dot Com, Nick Eatmon Dallas Cowboys dot Com, The original the first ever team writer in professional sports, nineteen ninety eight nine. It probably feels like it at this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well it felt like nineteen eighty eight. Yesterday went ten daily years in the cham First coach, first coach I was here for Yeah. At the tight ends coach named Les Miles, he was around. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Staff John Show of the Athletic I'm KNEWI scrugs all right. Dalton Schultz did not play in Philadelphia. He was inactive dealing with a knee. Here the rookie tight ends combined for six catches sixty two yards talking about Jake Ferguson out of Wisconsin and Peyton Hittershot, the undrafted free agent from Indiana. Guys, do we expect Dalton Schultz back and give me a sense of where you think his role, what could be his future going forward here? I thought one thing that was telling was in the pregame show and we did interviewed Stephen Jones, and then Jerry said it this morning as well. These guys are as plugged in as you're general managers and owners, and you know would be. They're both saying that they were surprised that he didn't play in the game. I thought that was surprising that they were surprised by it, and they practiced all week and it kind of popped up. So I think, more than anything is we're dealing with a with a guy that's that's got a knee injury that they hate to say they can't control it, but it's it's it's one of those things that maybe it's a Zeke thing from last year where it's always going to be something, it's gonna be problematic, and I don't want to take it there because I don't know. I don't want to take it there and say contract year protecting yourself. I don't know that, but I just know they were a little surprised that he didn't play in the game. Yeah. I also wonder with the whole knee brace thing. You know that was the thing with Zeke. You knew it was going to limit him, and this seems like the type of injury you're gonna have to do that He probably doesn't want to play with a knee brace because it limits what you can do, you know, That's the thing I remember. I think it was Zach Martin we were talking to a couple years ago talking about how if you're notice in college, they make it mandatory. You know, whether you're watching Notre Dame, Alabama, whoever, all their offensive linemen where the knee braces on both knees. When you get to the pros, no one's mandating that because they can't because it's gonna be every man to themselves. And I can't remember which player I asked about it, but they were like, if I wear both of those knee braces, I won't be in the NFL because just that like split second of me being a little bit slower, I'm not good enough to be in the NFL like that. So I just I find it interesting that see Zach Martin saying that. Martin definitely didn't say that. Well, Mary, I think he could do it with with four knee braces on knees. I think it might have been actually might have been Jonathan Cooper. J Yeah, but I'm wondering if that If that's the case, if the neat brace here, I'm thinking he wants to try and go without it. And then Steven said just ran the radio that he tweaked it on that Saturday practice. They do look pretty intensive Saturday. Clearly, yes, alf I are they go They go light on some days where people go heavy, and they go heavy on days when some people go light. But I think the obvious thing is is every snap that he's not out there, one of those snaps is going to Jake Ferguson or Peyton Hendershot, and everything that you hear and everything you see seems to be that both of them are trending in a direction that are going to be here for a while. And so if that's the case, no team is paying three tight ends. So you can just kind of figure it out for yourself there. This is why guys hate the franchise tag because yeah, he's got ten and guaranteed this year, Dalton Schultz, but then he's got to prove it again this year. And then all it takes as an injury like this to where he's not fully himself. I thought the Washington game, he played ten snaps. It was like he was out there just doing what he could, but he was obviously limited physically. And what John mentioned about Hendershott and Ferguson, he saw Ferguson with that nifty touchdown that was like some kind of James harden Stutter moved there on the touchdown. He's got talent. They kind of remind me of like Schultz and Jarwin two point zero coming in with kind of skill sets that compliment each other. And yeah, I don't know what it means for Shultz, but I do wonder if he can if he can get through this. And Zeke liked wearing the knee brace last year. He thought it gave him some some stability if he could get through this. He's been Dax guy. Yeah, so I'm curious to see if if maybe there's gonna be an uptick in usage there because Noah Brown was Cooper Rush's guy. I mean, there's just, you know, there's just a rapport that certain guys have with certain sort of guys, and also they've been really trying to max protect and really, I mean, Schultz has been blocking a lot to allow Cooper Rush to be you know, opening things up down fields. So maybe things change a little bit assuming he gets back. It's seven catches with Dak his first game, you know, and I think he has like nine now eight. I mean it's not nine. I believe he has, you know, and that's a good point. I mean, he's blocking a little bit more, a lot more mac protect, but it's still there's a there's a there's a security blanket type feeling there with Dak and Dalton Schultz, and he seems like the type of player that especially when we talked earlier about how Dak probably doesn't need to take as many chances, take the safe throws. You've got a good defense. Who would he throw more safe throws too than Dalton Schultz. These guys are more athletic. Though they're more athletic, and it's definitely hinder shot. That's the one thing that Lunda Wells was saying to us in the preseason and training camp that this guy, you know, has a chance to make a difference because he goes vertical down the field and then Ferguson does as well. And that catch I never from my view in the press box probably the same, almost similar to yours is. I didn't think he was going to catch that ball, that deep one, that's like it's way overthrown, and he still keeps going, keeps going, catches up ground and then makes the catch h Ferguson, And then of course, like you said, the touchdown was just it was like Chris Berman with the wall. Yeah, yeah, that was awesome. Hendrew shot. He runs, I said this morning, he runs routes like a receiver. One of our guys on the show this morning said that, and he's playing a little fast. Mike McCarthy talked about that, and maybe he was talking about the illegal motion just kind of settled down a little bit. But they've got a lot of talent, both guys do. Bill Parcells, you say you don't want to leave the huddle because you don't know who's coming in, and those two rookies have come in here and they played well, and just by listening to you, you know, What he also used to say about tight end is he this is one of my favorite lines. He would say live drafted the tight end like in the fourth, fifth, sixth round. Almost every year he would like getting a good, solid tight end. Keep it coming, like Keith, let's go every year, which, listening to you guys, means Dalton Schultz is gonna have missed his window. That you didn't sign that contract and they're probably not gonna offer it to you again. Be is you now can have guys who are under rookie contracts and with other players coming up here, you can put that money towards them and not have to pay a tight end. Well, he missed his cowboy he might have listed his cowboys a window. That's what I mean. He's not missing his bay window. Just watch watch to see what he gets in. That's what I mean. That's yeah, but it may never have come next year. I don't know how you guys feel about it, but I mean, you franchise him once, you could franchise him again. But I mean there is money that's got to go to some all pro guys here in the next couple of years and maybe Ceedee Lamb too. And you know we can't pay everybody. Hey, so it's gonna get a huge deal, like if he gets like a twenty two twenty three catch, you know, because I don't think they'll look at this year. I think they'll look at he has a good body of work, and he may you look at some some tight ends that have gotten some big deals out there in the last year or two. I think that he'll end up getting a deal that is going to be more than what he ever was gonna get from the Cowboys. There will be a team out there that really every year we got. I'm just saying the position is just one of those. It's It's okay. I know this is to sound stupid because of the fact that the Cowboys have two rookies playing really well. Tight End is one of the tougher positions to transition from from college to pro. And if you have a quarterback, let's say it's a young quarterback and another team in the NFL and you want a good, solid tight end that has experience that can do multiple things. I can see a team paying for it. He's super smart too, and I mean he's you know, he'll fit in. He'll fit into the group. And maybe it is here. I mean it's you know, we're five games, yeah, or six games into this. Yeah. You don't want to write him off yet because I do think, like you said, I think the connection with Dak is there. He could start getting that back going if he gets healthy. But you just wonder about the knee, like, is it is it something he needs? Does he need a couple of weeks here? Does he need to go IR? I mean that might even be an option. Is like, I mean, you go, you have to buy a week coming up? Is IR games or weeks thing? I think I thought it was a week. I think it's weeks. I would consider it. Then think about he got two games here he got to buy, I would con I mean, I don't know, I don't know what the situation is that there being you know, if Jerry and Steven are surprised, I'm surprised too. Then, I mean, we don't know. It's a tough deal. You don't know what's going on, and we don't know if it's exactly like Zeke's. I mean it's a PCL that. I mean that bothered Zeke the entire rest of the season, and he was able to get through it. But if that's the case, then it's not going away, not at least ninety time soon. Yeah, and let's get our second break in here. Want to dive into your concern about stopping the run for the Cowboys defense. And we know Detroit's going to want to run the football with Swift and Williams. Come high noon Sunday at Jerry World. Rob Phillips, Dascowboys dot com. Nick Eatman, Dallas Cowboys dot com. John Mashouda of the Athletic of Newi Scrugs. This is the mediamash on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. The season is finally here. For months, we've been gearing up to win. Now it's time for the team that performs on any field. United Egg in Turn with John Deer zero turns for mowing, compact tractors for loading, many excavators for digging, Gator utility vehicles for hauling, implements for grading, pay tools for bailing. Unite at agg in Turf for winning the official LaGG and Turf equipment supplier of the Dallas Cowboys. Visit United Agginturf dot com for more. Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the Cheetah Savannah Todd believed the big Cat repellent he bought online was reliable. And now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run eighty miles per hour. But the good news is Todd has at and T five G. It is fast, reliable, and secure, and he learned the best thing to do is stop running and toss her the backpack with the beef stew at and T five G. Fast, reliable, secure, It's not complicated. Five G requires compatible plan and device. Five G may not be available in your area. See att dot com slash five G for you for details. Sweet, did you get to work on time? Yeah, but I just realized it's Sunday, Loo sweets his head on home. Doctor Pepper's on its way. Maybe there's nothing better If you've probably done something investionistic in an NFTEP. I don't even know what that is. It's the non functable token something. When you build, you start with the foundation, and homeownership is a foundation of a stable future. The Bank of America Community Homeownership Commitment has helped over thirty four thousand people lay the ground work so far, with up to ten thousand dollars to at your down payment or three percent of the purchase price, whichever is less. The satisfaction of owning your own place can become a reality. Visit Bank of America dot com slash homeowner to learn more. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America and a equal housing lender, credit and collateral subfeue to approval restrictions apply. This is not a commitment to lend to Mediamash Midimash Right here all Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio, We've got John a show to the athletic Nick eaton Dallas Cowboys dot com and Rob Phillips of Dallas Cowboys dot com. Cowboys coming off the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles getting ready for the Detroit Lions. After that it is the Chicago Bears, then a bye week, and then they head up for one more straight NFC North contest. It will be the Green Bay Packers at lambeau Field, first time that Mike McCarthy has been back there since being released as the head coach. In this football game on Sunday, Philly ran the ball. We knew they wanted to run the ball. They ran the ball. And to me, when I think about how do you beat the Dallas Cowboys this year, going back into last year, it's by running the football. What is your concern level, Rob? I put a medium, But because I think Philly's so unique, there's not an offense like them, So that style of run game they're not going to see maybe the rest of the year other than Christmas Eve. That being said, I think it's been an issue at times throughout this season, and part of it's because their pass rush is so good. And McCarthy's spoken of this, He's like, that's how I would attack this Cowboys defense because I don't want them rushing the passer on me. It's it's what Washington tried to do to get them off of Carson Wentz because their offensive line was so banged up and struggling. So they've really been able to mainly I think attack edges and sometimes they're running at Michael Parsons and forcing him into run defense and trying to wear him down those specifically that spot is where I've seen it. But I think every team is gonna have problems with this RPO stuff. From the Eagles. I think they're legit. I don't think they're going anywhere six and oh yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that that element is just a dynamic that's very tough to stop. You know, other teams have done well on the outside rushing in the ball. I remember four neat did I feel like Washington kind of ran the ball on the outside more um and then you know, but the Eagles were like brought up the middle. You know, a lot of it was, it felt like, and that was because of the RPO. I think that teams are going to figure out you know, I hate to say the word blueprint again, but you wonder if you're starting to see teams like, all right, we're gonna do this with Mica. You're gonna put Mike on the outside, we're gonna go over here, or we're gonna put him in coverage. We're gonna do things to neutralize him a little bit. So that's what I under If teams are gonna start really kind of game planning and say, we're gonna go against this guy if he's your best player and you don't want to put him in the middle of the field and we're gonna go around him. Yeah, I think that game is going to be kind of an outlier because it wasn't just yeah Mica, he certainly was frustrated in the locker room after the game, and we've seen it a few times after some games. I feel like New England last year was another one where you could just tell he was not happy with the way he played. But here's the thing. They didn't get any of those big, huge plays out of Michael Parsons or to Marcus Lawrence or Treyvon Diggs and those three right there. The odds are that you're gonna have all three of them not have any big plays. I just don't think it is great. I think that that was a huge reason why they won that game. It took three turnovers and all three of those guys not to have any big game changing play type thing. I find hardbly that's gonna happen all the time. And then going back to the whole quarterback situation. Everything's rolling right now and it probably seems great what Jalen Hurts is doing, but also when you do all that read option stuff all the time, you open your quarterback up to take a lot of hits, Oh no, I'm not gonna be judge the same way as a pocket passer. So you know, if you keep doing that, there's gonna be some big time dns that are gonna sit there and guess that the quarterback's gonna keep it, and the quarterback pitched, but he's still getting smoked because that's part of the game. And I understand it was a big deal with dak early on. Ay that success they had with with Zeke early Hey, that was great. They were also young. I don't think you want to be doing that stuff anymore as your quarterback gets older in this league paying them the big time buck. So it works, and it's working right now for them. I just don't know if that can be your plan long term. Robert Griffin was great at it early on, and he got hurt and he wasn't the same quarterback after that. So you, I mean, your point's well taken. I've seen I've seen this year or hurts. I can't remember what game it was, but I remember him getting that call, just like what you're talking about, a read option. He pitches it, then he gets hit and they treat him like a quarterback. Now, I don't think it's you know, and maybe that's part of them in their competition committee going on right now. I mean they're talking about rough of the passer. I mean I have to figure that out somehow, But you're right. I mean, he's gonna get hit a lot. But I do remember a play this year where they did treat him that way, which I think is just it's ridiculous how a guy can run like that and then just slide when he want. Yeah. The other thing too, that could get the Eagles is if they haven't run into an offense yet, that can make them play from behind to where the RPO stuff doesn't mean as much. Yeah. So, and maybe that's the Cowboys on Christmas Eve. Maybe we'll see that where it's you know, they're not as limited offensively, but back to the run defense, knewy Like. I just think the other thing too, like Johns mentioned the miss tackles, and guys kept saying Mike has said it, some other guys I think said it after the game, guys trying to make the splash play and trying I don't know if they're they're so hyped up because they've been playing so well and everybody wants to eat and make the big splash play. Just and maybe that's what Dan was referring to yesterday. Just everybody in their in their assignment and we don't have to be splashy all the time. We're good enough to just be solid. You know, they ask all three because you were all in Philadelphia at the game. Mike McCarthy heavily criticized for not throwing the challenge flag on that CD lamb um on that first down, clearly a first down. He said, you know, I talked to the side judge. I said, nope. How much you think is that warranted for Mike? Yeah, I mean I think thirty coaches at the booth. They bring thirty coaches to the game, so I mean, I don't know what what are all of the functions. I mean, honestly, what what are we doing? I mean, like we're up in the press spot. I mean, I think it was such a critical part at the game. Is your offense is showing nothing. You finally got a first down and it looked like it, and the line judge, right, I mean the side judge she marked first down right in front of him, first down, and then all of a sudden she she went over here, and they said no, they didn't get it, and that's the reason why they were going heavy and all that stuff. I mean, you have to throw the flag. You have to challenge it. You have to stop, if anything, stop this momentum and say figure it out, because you're saying first down, we're trying to go. Now you've changed it. At what is it? And then while you're doing all this figure it out, hopefully one of those guys up in the booths it's like, oh, non, I got to challenge this. Well, we got this, you know. Yeah, Mike McCarthy looked like there was no cast on the sideline. It looked like we're going for this and there was no hesitation. So I do. I do agree with Nick there is you have to question not throwing a challenge flag there. I thought it was a big moment in the game, even though it was still early one two. The play call is just not you can't. That's not what you got to do there. Yeah, I mean, you're way better off punting the ball than if he doesn't roll out. And at that point, Hendershot had never made a catch like that. Yeah in the NFL. And yeah, and maybe with Dak that play call works better because because Dak's a more mobile quarterback. But like I'm with John, and it's not the play call. I wouldn't have called a better player, I would have punted the ball. And we're seeing more offenses and the Rams did it against the Cowboys, be more aggressive and deep in their own territory. But I just you mentioned three turnovers. Knew he is really four because four times you're giving the ball back, and I think it was all in Cowboys territory. You can't win like that, not with your backup quarterback in the game. So I was surprised that he went for it. I know it's fourth and one. I know he trusts his team and it's worked for him in the past, but I was surprised by that. One other thing, I was gonna say, to give the Eagles some props on this, why don't more teams do that line up in the victory formation to have your both your backs back there to push your quarterback. When I saw that, I was like, the Cowboy should do that with dack in and fourth and inch. This type situation now you probably now do it now with the thumb, but you have a big quarterback that's obviously strong. You put you could put you could put Freniac back there or something. And all they're doing is as soon as the ball snap, they just you know, when the Eagles push the quarterback two point conversion with a penny on digs and they got they moved it from the two to the one to go for it. I thought, well, that's exactly what they're gonna do. We've already seen it once. They're gonna do it again. And then they put they made a run or they did something different. I'm just like, why wouldn't you do that? Yeah, that seems like that's gonna work. And hey, we saw in practice last week the Cowboys were working on that. It was a part portion of practice. They told us we couldn't take pictures or talk about or do anything like that. They were clearly working on it. I don't know if you saw him the one, Layton Vanderesh, you know he timed it up perfect and jumped over the top. But it just you got three guys pushing one guy. You're gonna need more help than just one guy superman and over the top there. But it wasn't like they weren't ready for that. They prepared for it. It It just it's a tough it's a tough play to defend. A lot of things coming out of this game where the Cowboys players and coaches can look towards and just say, hey, look, this is where we got to get fixed and get better if we want to go where we want to go. I think you don't want to lose. But when you lose, can you take something from it. There's a lot of things they can take something from it. For me, I go back and think, all right, you went turbo, so you wanted to go get a quick snap. Maybe the best thing to do was all right, wait, you know, let the play clock go, Let your people tell you whether or not to throw it, you know, because as you said, that was a really critical situation right there. But this is what you learned. I mean, this is the stuff Mike always talks about self scout. That's what you do. Yeah, And this is what doesn't make sense about the play call. The hurrying to the line of scrimmage is to be able to snap the ball and keep the Eagles defense personnel the way it is. It was third and nine, right, third and eight. I can't remember, but it was third and nine. So the Eagles got it like a nickel defense out there. You throw it and you get ten. But whatever is it's called short and so and so you turbo to the line of scrimmage, so they can't put Big Jordan Davis and those guys in there and clog it up. So that's why you rush to the line, because even though you got Zeke out there, you're gonna run it and then you do a bootleg that like that makes no sense. Why would you turbo to get them in a nickel situation and then not run it on him box. Yeah, that's a real good point right there. Um, Look, number four is back, it's a new week. There's a lot to learn from fucking conversation. Rob Phillips, Nick Keathman, John was showed up and new rescrist the Medimash will return tomorrow, hide at three o'clock and we'll have a we'll have a fired up clearance. He'll joining us. You're gonna be back tomorrow. I don't know. I just hold on on us doing this tomorrow though, to be serious, because I think they're moving to practice time tomorrow and we might have Mike McCarthy at three, so we'll see you. Yeah, we'll see. It's still kind of up in the air, but I'm just saying, but if it is well, I will be here. That's that's a good point. All right, we may or may not because we operate there something well be something going on at three o'clock. Yeah, all right, that's Medimash. We'll we'll chat to you soon right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
The following. He's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. Cowboys. This is Media Match, a roundtable of Cowboys insiders dropping wisdom on the current state of your Dallas Cowboys. Now your host, Newy Scrugs Media Match on Tuesday. Let's right right, writing better than Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos for your no doubt about that. Watching Monday Night football made me appreciate Mike McCarthy. A lot of Cowboy fans were unhappy. They're like, may should throwing the flag there matter you could have one of those two guys, Staley or Hacket as your head coach because everything they did was terrible. Yesterday that was that looked like Thursday night football. That game was so bad. It was awful to watch, awful to watch. But let's get into some Cowboys here with Rob Phillip Dallas Cows dot Com, Nick Eatmandow Scott Boys dot Com. John was showed up of the athletic I knew we Scrugs tomorrow forward his back, he'll be practicing. I'm kind of excited. Oh, I mean, I don't know, Yeah, is it gonna happen? You'll hit me with the wet blanket. Okay, Oh, I mean, oh, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen to happen tomorrow. Yeah, sure. It's just it's just like there's there's some stretching and then there's a little bit of throwing, and then it'll be some left handed and he's gonna punt. He's gonna have it taped up because he's like gonna be like, Hi, everyone's gonna be taking a picture of it, and he's gonna everyone leaves and he can go out and he's just gonna dice it up. So I don't know, man, I got there early. Uh. I know, you guys were there too for the game, and I thought you looked pretty good. Now, of course he's throwing, there's no defense and he's just thrown on air. But I thought it was really impressive because we they've done a good job of not allowing us to see very much, and so to be there he's throwing it, and which was kind of an awkward thing because when you get into the stadium, the only people that are there aretty much sadium workers and they're sitting there and you're just like, why are you videotaping all this stuff? And it's like, well, we normally don't get to watching this. I want to tweet out a couple of videos or whatever. So he threw about fifty times, and I don't know, I thought he looked pretty good. And then the ultimate, the biggest thing, the most obvious one to me is this is just absolutely the perfect get right team that you're playing against. I mean, you couldn't ask for about our team. You're at home. You haven't a formed educated opinion about. They're the worst of the team they're playing too. They're they're the worst defense in the NFL. There's not a better time to bring him back than against this opponent. The next two games, yeah, and then the bye week and then and then the big McCarthy game going back to Green Bay. But yeah, the other thing too, he was taking staffs from center. I wasn't there this. Yeah, So that was the other thing we have not seen at all. We seen him throw, you know, some routes on air, but doing that, that's part of this offense too. I would be shocked if he's not back Sunday. Yeah. The reason I said I was excited about for coming back is we've seen the offense when four football games with Cooper Rush and they're running the ball. I don't think that Kellen Moore should change what he's doing at all. Keep running the football here and with a better quarterback. Now you got a shot at scoring twenty four twenty six points a game. And if your offense can get out twenty four twenty six points a game. But the way this defense is going, this team should win a lot of football games. Arrest of the way. Here's the thing a lot of people will talk about, Oh, is Dak going to change his game. He needs to change his game. He needs to play more like like Cooper Rush did. I definitely would never say that, but I do think it's interesting that he was on the sideline for these five games and he got to watch what will be unquestionably the best defense that he has played with in his career. And so when you see that, it's one thing that I'm you know, hey, I'm sure he knew times last year he sees Michael Parsons practice, you know, you go out to the training camp. I'm sure he knew it was going to be a really good defense. It's another thing to just see how dominant they've been and how well they've played during this stretch that even to him, he's got to kind of be like uncertain throws. I don't really need to risk it here, you know what, I can just take this. Let's just live to play another down. Because there was times when obviously was the quarterback of this team where it's like Jack, if you don't put up thirty five, I don't know if we're gonna have a chance in this game. And that's not the case anymore. Agree with that, And like he's never really had this defense. And also, you know, I think that just the threat of him running, he doesn't have to go and take off all the time like the other guys. But you know, there was a play early in the game where it was like third and two and it was a run pass option and he and Cooper RUSSI the reads take it and that's just not his game. And I hope that that would be Dax game. And you know, I don't know if y'all noticed this and the game the other night, but the run pass option hurt the Cowboys on defense just a little bit. You know, it hurts. I mean, I thought hurts hurts his running ability killed the Cowboys, and it wasn't because it was this game. It was because they were scared about all the other games and therefore they were worried about him and then Miles Sanders just gashing him for thirteen rpo of he works, doesn't work with Cooper rush. I think it'll work more with Dak. Yeah, and we think probably another year removed from the ankle injury, that he's going to be more involved doing that. And it's always been a nice red zone threat for them, especially inside the twenty. With Dak being able to do that, and maybe they can raise it from that standpoint. I said, I'm talking Cowboys this morning, like bringing up your point, KNEWI about the same offense, Like, there's nothing wrong with that. I think there is a sentiment out there that he's a forty million dollars man, so it needs to be all on his shoulders. How's it working out for Aaron Rodgers right now without some of the talent that he's had around him in the past, You know, like it's okay to have a nice support system and an offense that doesn't rely on you solely to make plays. And Troikman had a great offensive line a great running game. I'm not saying it's the same offense here, but you know what I mean, It's okay. He doesn't have to do it all himself. Troy the most he ever threw touchdowns in the season twenty three and still has a spot in Canton. I just think that Dak's coming back. It's a Lions team that you should be able to beat. So need the role out here forty times. You don't need to throw it forty times. You've got a defense that is winning games. And we were at the McCarthy press conference and he said, we are a defensive football team. So if you're defensive football team, you know what you need to do. You need to keep them off the field. You guys were at the game. I was thirty four minutes and thirty seconds on the field. I'm sorry, that's too much for any defense. You're just you're asking thirty four minutes, thirty four thirty seconds, three turnovers. You're asking to get beat. If this team is on the field for twenty five minutes and you've got no turnovers and Dak Prescott is back, I like the Cowboys chances to win a lot of a lot of football games. The rest of the way. I just hope Kellen Moore will stick to what's been going on here because I think this is the formula for they can actually do something and take this into the playoffs and win with this. Well again, that's why this is the perfect team to play against. It's the worst rush defense in the NFL by far, worst rushed defense, and even that Cowboys how bad it was two years ago, a team that has not won on the road since twenty twenty. This, I mean, this sets up perfectly for you to run the ball, get right in the run game. I'm not that they ran the ball pretty well against Philly, but you don't. Dak doesn't have to go out there and throw a bunch. He can kind of, you can work him in. If there's a little bit of rust early on, hey, then then you know maybe he you know, he can work through it. But uh, this I like again, I just think you could win this game with any of your quarterbacks. So this is just the perfect perfect game for him. The comeback. I don't think the Eagles have given up more than twenty points to anyone except for the Lions. That Week one game is weird to me because it wasn't a like thirty eight thirty five. They can score points. Yeah, they can't stop anyone, but but they can score now that they can shut out in New England, right, Yeah, they just got shut out in New England. And I also think that this is probably the angriest that the Cowboys defense has been all season. With the way that they played. I expect them not to come in this game and take anyone lightly, especially when you have coaches harping on the mistackles. That's something that usually when that happens in a week, the following week, there aren't as many mistackles that that part gets cleaned up. How many times of dan Quincy was pissed off yesterday I don't know quite probably ten ten mis tackles, ten pissed off? Yeah, yeah, I think for the Cowboy coaches, I said Monday, this is this is Yeah, you don't want to lose, but this is a good way to lose in terms of all right, now, you've got a lot of teaching points. You can come out here and point things out and say, hey, look, this has got to be better. That's got to be better. And you just faced you know, an Eagles team that's still unbeaten it. Now you're in third place, so I think they're gonna have a whole lot of folks attention here. Let flip this to the other side. Dan Campbell, former Dallas Cowboy tight end. We were here and remember that Dan was the starting tight end and the backup was some dude named Jason went and taking third round out of Tennessee. I watched Hard Knocks and I saw so many people across the country get sold on Dan Campbell. I like Dan, I do, but watching that stuff, I'm like, man, that's high school stuff. Man, this is National Football League. That stuff's not going to carry very long. It's good for the cameras. But seventeen weeks, I'm sorry, and now we're looking at teams just won one football game here and they are struggling. They went and they took on New England, got shut out. I mean that Pat Matt Patricia revenge game. I mean, that was that was something to see. But I am you're you're the You're the Michigan native. I'm worried this is about to turn into another Oh well, this is the line type of season, man, Yeah, of course, I mean that's just how I mean this is not. It's not small sample size, like there's not five ten years. I mean this is going back to the fifties. So yeah, no, this line's up. But to your point on the Dan Campbell thing, I was thinking about this before the game when we were eating in the press box in Philly and I asked Clarence and few others about this. I was like, uh, you know, college football and pro football, how many times is the guy that gets hired and is the ra ra guy that the fans all love. How many times is that does that person end up really meeting expectations or exceeding him Most of the time they disappoint because that fans stuff is great, and that raw Ross stuff is great, and then you gotta do that thing where it's, oh, yeah, you gotta coach on Saturday, you gotta coach on Sunday. That's the stuff that matters. It really is you can completely hate a guy like I'll give you a great exam perfect one I'm coming up with right now that I've seen, and not to take it too far into college football, but is that Notre Dame? You know LSU fans can't stand Brian Kelly, you know, Notre Dame gets a guy that they're all raw rather, Hey, this is our guy. He wants to be here, and then you're just kind of like yeah. But then on Saturdays you still have to be able to coach, and Brian Kelly can coach on Saturdays. You might not like him as a person, the guy can coach absolutely, Oh yeah, man, he was up there boomso yeah yeah, and that whole thing. Jim Harball at Michigan. Man who here doing rap videos? Who's got it better than us? Nobody got a great recruiting class. He's taking, taking folks over to Europe and down here to the South and that that's stuff. It's different with the NFL a little bit because who's like, I can't think of an NFL coach that like the fan when they right when they got the fan base was just so fired up and then it worked out that's where I was going. And who who's been a while? Who's the coaching, Who's who's the guy coaching? Who are the players? Because if you've got good players, it doesn't matter. Not not that coaching doesn't matter and your messages doesn't matter, but um, there's certain situations where guys step into jobs and if they just don't have the quarterback or enough guys to really make plays on Sunday, the messages, it doesn't it doesn't ring true ultimately in the box score. So, um, he's they They've taken steps. I think he's just trying to change the culture. He's trying to bring some excitement to this franchise. You know all about it, John, Like it's just not The kneecap stuff is good, I think, you know, but but again, they got to have enough players get done, you know. And that's what I said this morning on our show, is that you know, Dad did a nice job of throwing the ball, looked great. One thing it didn't get was hit obviously. And you wonder if if you're teaching, if your message is we're gonna bite someone's kneecap when we come up, I bet we're going to hit someone in the thumb. Yeah, you know what I mean, Like, we're gonna we're gonna be that, you know. So that's what I wonder is is they're gonna be fired up for him. He's coming back to the Cowboys and the Texas A and M guy and Aaron Glenn's a defensive coordinator. I mean, you know, they both played here together and all that, and they'll be fired up and all that. You wonder, Dad, you know you're gonna take any shots like that. I'm not saying Detroit's dirty team or whatever. They're gonna be aggressive. I mean, their head coach said it a hundred times. And the press conference he kept going and kept going and saying, I'm gonna do this. We're gonna take out another hunk. Yeah, We're gonna take another hunker. It's like, all right, we get it, Dan, you know, so you wonder how aggressive the team is going to be coming in here. One other thing I want to say about the fan thing real quick. What I was going to finish up with is just a fact of probably the guy that the fans wanted the least to stay as coach in Detroit was Jim Calwell. Fans didn't want that. That's the best coach that they've had in a long time. And just interesting how that works out. Substance. Yeah, you know that that's the thing that somebody folks miss out on. It just absolute substance there. Okay, let's hit a break in here, Dalton Schultz. I want to dive into the Cowboys tight in how much are they missing him when they get him back? And then also the future for Dalton Shoultz. There's a very interesting topic. Rob Phillips, Nick Eatman, John showed I'm nui scuts. This is the mediamash on Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the cheetah Savannah. Todd believed the big cat repellent he bought online was reliable, and now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run eighty miles per hour. But the good news is Todd has at and T five G. 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Visit United Agginturf dot com for more. Back to mediamash Mediamash Here on a Tuesday, Cowboys have the day off. The return to practice Wednesdays, they get ready to face the one and four Detroit Lions Sunday at noon at at and T Stadium. Rob Phillips, Dallascowboys dot Com, Nick Eatmon Dallas Cowboys dot Com, The original the first ever team writer in professional sports, nineteen ninety eight nine. It probably feels like it at this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well it felt like nineteen eighty eight. Yesterday went ten daily years in the cham First coach, first coach I was here for Yeah. At the tight ends coach named Les Miles, he was around. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Staff John Show of the Athletic I'm KNEWI scrugs all right. Dalton Schultz did not play in Philadelphia. He was inactive dealing with a knee. Here the rookie tight ends combined for six catches sixty two yards talking about Jake Ferguson out of Wisconsin and Peyton Hittershot, the undrafted free agent from Indiana. Guys, do we expect Dalton Schultz back and give me a sense of where you think his role, what could be his future going forward here? I thought one thing that was telling was in the pregame show and we did interviewed Stephen Jones, and then Jerry said it this morning as well. These guys are as plugged in as you're general managers and owners, and you know would be. They're both saying that they were surprised that he didn't play in the game. I thought that was surprising that they were surprised by it, and they practiced all week and it kind of popped up. So I think, more than anything is we're dealing with a with a guy that's that's got a knee injury that they hate to say they can't control it, but it's it's it's one of those things that maybe it's a Zeke thing from last year where it's always going to be something, it's gonna be problematic, and I don't want to take it there because I don't know. I don't want to take it there and say contract year protecting yourself. I don't know that, but I just know they were a little surprised that he didn't play in the game. Yeah. I also wonder with the whole knee brace thing. You know that was the thing with Zeke. You knew it was going to limit him, and this seems like the type of injury you're gonna have to do that He probably doesn't want to play with a knee brace because it limits what you can do, you know, That's the thing I remember. I think it was Zach Martin we were talking to a couple years ago talking about how if you're notice in college, they make it mandatory. You know, whether you're watching Notre Dame, Alabama, whoever, all their offensive linemen where the knee braces on both knees. When you get to the pros, no one's mandating that because they can't because it's gonna be every man to themselves. And I can't remember which player I asked about it, but they were like, if I wear both of those knee braces, I won't be in the NFL because just that like split second of me being a little bit slower, I'm not good enough to be in the NFL like that. So I just I find it interesting that see Zach Martin saying that. Martin definitely didn't say that. Well, Mary, I think he could do it with with four knee braces on knees. I think it might have been actually might have been Jonathan Cooper. J Yeah, but I'm wondering if that If that's the case, if the neat brace here, I'm thinking he wants to try and go without it. And then Steven said just ran the radio that he tweaked it on that Saturday practice. They do look pretty intensive Saturday. Clearly, yes, alf I are they go They go light on some days where people go heavy, and they go heavy on days when some people go light. But I think the obvious thing is is every snap that he's not out there, one of those snaps is going to Jake Ferguson or Peyton Hendershot, and everything that you hear and everything you see seems to be that both of them are trending in a direction that are going to be here for a while. And so if that's the case, no team is paying three tight ends. So you can just kind of figure it out for yourself there. This is why guys hate the franchise tag because yeah, he's got ten and guaranteed this year, Dalton Schultz, but then he's got to prove it again this year. And then all it takes as an injury like this to where he's not fully himself. I thought the Washington game, he played ten snaps. It was like he was out there just doing what he could, but he was obviously limited physically. And what John mentioned about Hendershott and Ferguson, he saw Ferguson with that nifty touchdown that was like some kind of James harden Stutter moved there on the touchdown. He's got talent. They kind of remind me of like Schultz and Jarwin two point zero coming in with kind of skill sets that compliment each other. And yeah, I don't know what it means for Shultz, but I do wonder if he can if he can get through this. And Zeke liked wearing the knee brace last year. He thought it gave him some some stability if he could get through this. He's been Dax guy. Yeah, so I'm curious to see if if maybe there's gonna be an uptick in usage there because Noah Brown was Cooper Rush's guy. I mean, there's just, you know, there's just a rapport that certain guys have with certain sort of guys, and also they've been really trying to max protect and really, I mean, Schultz has been blocking a lot to allow Cooper Rush to be you know, opening things up down fields. So maybe things change a little bit assuming he gets back. It's seven catches with Dak his first game, you know, and I think he has like nine now eight. I mean it's not nine. I believe he has, you know, and that's a good point. I mean, he's blocking a little bit more, a lot more mac protect, but it's still there's a there's a there's a security blanket type feeling there with Dak and Dalton Schultz, and he seems like the type of player that especially when we talked earlier about how Dak probably doesn't need to take as many chances, take the safe throws. You've got a good defense. Who would he throw more safe throws too than Dalton Schultz. These guys are more athletic. Though they're more athletic, and it's definitely hinder shot. That's the one thing that Lunda Wells was saying to us in the preseason and training camp that this guy, you know, has a chance to make a difference because he goes vertical down the field and then Ferguson does as well. And that catch I never from my view in the press box probably the same, almost similar to yours is. I didn't think he was going to catch that ball, that deep one, that's like it's way overthrown, and he still keeps going, keeps going, catches up ground and then makes the catch h Ferguson, And then of course, like you said, the touchdown was just it was like Chris Berman with the wall. Yeah, yeah, that was awesome. Hendrew shot. He runs, I said this morning, he runs routes like a receiver. One of our guys on the show this morning said that, and he's playing a little fast. Mike McCarthy talked about that, and maybe he was talking about the illegal motion just kind of settled down a little bit. But they've got a lot of talent, both guys do. Bill Parcells, you say you don't want to leave the huddle because you don't know who's coming in, and those two rookies have come in here and they played well, and just by listening to you, you know, What he also used to say about tight end is he this is one of my favorite lines. He would say live drafted the tight end like in the fourth, fifth, sixth round. Almost every year he would like getting a good, solid tight end. Keep it coming, like Keith, let's go every year, which, listening to you guys, means Dalton Schultz is gonna have missed his window. That you didn't sign that contract and they're probably not gonna offer it to you again. Be is you now can have guys who are under rookie contracts and with other players coming up here, you can put that money towards them and not have to pay a tight end. Well, he missed his cowboy he might have listed his cowboys a window. That's what I mean. He's not missing his bay window. Just watch watch to see what he gets in. That's what I mean. That's yeah, but it may never have come next year. I don't know how you guys feel about it, but I mean, you franchise him once, you could franchise him again. But I mean there is money that's got to go to some all pro guys here in the next couple of years and maybe Ceedee Lamb too. And you know we can't pay everybody. Hey, so it's gonna get a huge deal, like if he gets like a twenty two twenty three catch, you know, because I don't think they'll look at this year. I think they'll look at he has a good body of work, and he may you look at some some tight ends that have gotten some big deals out there in the last year or two. I think that he'll end up getting a deal that is going to be more than what he ever was gonna get from the Cowboys. There will be a team out there that really every year we got. I'm just saying the position is just one of those. It's It's okay. I know this is to sound stupid because of the fact that the Cowboys have two rookies playing really well. Tight End is one of the tougher positions to transition from from college to pro. And if you have a quarterback, let's say it's a young quarterback and another team in the NFL and you want a good, solid tight end that has experience that can do multiple things. I can see a team paying for it. He's super smart too, and I mean he's you know, he'll fit in. He'll fit into the group. And maybe it is here. I mean it's you know, we're five games, yeah, or six games into this. Yeah. You don't want to write him off yet because I do think, like you said, I think the connection with Dak is there. He could start getting that back going if he gets healthy. But you just wonder about the knee, like, is it is it something he needs? Does he need a couple of weeks here? Does he need to go IR? I mean that might even be an option. Is like, I mean, you go, you have to buy a week coming up? Is IR games or weeks thing? I think I thought it was a week. I think it's weeks. I would consider it. Then think about he got two games here he got to buy, I would con I mean, I don't know, I don't know what the situation is that there being you know, if Jerry and Steven are surprised, I'm surprised too. Then, I mean, we don't know. It's a tough deal. You don't know what's going on, and we don't know if it's exactly like Zeke's. I mean it's a PCL that. I mean that bothered Zeke the entire rest of the season, and he was able to get through it. But if that's the case, then it's not going away, not at least ninety time soon. Yeah, and let's get our second break in here. Want to dive into your concern about stopping the run for the Cowboys defense. And we know Detroit's going to want to run the football with Swift and Williams. Come high noon Sunday at Jerry World. Rob Phillips, Dascowboys dot com. Nick Eatman, Dallas Cowboys dot com. John Mashouda of the Athletic of Newi Scrugs. This is the mediamash on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. The season is finally here. 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This is not a commitment to lend to Mediamash Midimash Right here all Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio, We've got John a show to the athletic Nick eaton Dallas Cowboys dot com and Rob Phillips of Dallas Cowboys dot com. Cowboys coming off the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles getting ready for the Detroit Lions. After that it is the Chicago Bears, then a bye week, and then they head up for one more straight NFC North contest. It will be the Green Bay Packers at lambeau Field, first time that Mike McCarthy has been back there since being released as the head coach. In this football game on Sunday, Philly ran the ball. We knew they wanted to run the ball. They ran the ball. And to me, when I think about how do you beat the Dallas Cowboys this year, going back into last year, it's by running the football. What is your concern level, Rob? I put a medium, But because I think Philly's so unique, there's not an offense like them, So that style of run game they're not going to see maybe the rest of the year other than Christmas Eve. That being said, I think it's been an issue at times throughout this season, and part of it's because their pass rush is so good. And McCarthy's spoken of this, He's like, that's how I would attack this Cowboys defense because I don't want them rushing the passer on me. It's it's what Washington tried to do to get them off of Carson Wentz because their offensive line was so banged up and struggling. So they've really been able to mainly I think attack edges and sometimes they're running at Michael Parsons and forcing him into run defense and trying to wear him down those specifically that spot is where I've seen it. But I think every team is gonna have problems with this RPO stuff. From the Eagles. I think they're legit. I don't think they're going anywhere six and oh yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that that element is just a dynamic that's very tough to stop. You know, other teams have done well on the outside rushing in the ball. I remember four neat did I feel like Washington kind of ran the ball on the outside more um and then you know, but the Eagles were like brought up the middle. You know, a lot of it was, it felt like, and that was because of the RPO. I think that teams are going to figure out you know, I hate to say the word blueprint again, but you wonder if you're starting to see teams like, all right, we're gonna do this with Mica. You're gonna put Mike on the outside, we're gonna go over here, or we're gonna put him in coverage. We're gonna do things to neutralize him a little bit. So that's what I under If teams are gonna start really kind of game planning and say, we're gonna go against this guy if he's your best player and you don't want to put him in the middle of the field and we're gonna go around him. Yeah, I think that game is going to be kind of an outlier because it wasn't just yeah Mica, he certainly was frustrated in the locker room after the game, and we've seen it a few times after some games. I feel like New England last year was another one where you could just tell he was not happy with the way he played. But here's the thing. They didn't get any of those big, huge plays out of Michael Parsons or to Marcus Lawrence or Treyvon Diggs and those three right there. The odds are that you're gonna have all three of them not have any big plays. I just don't think it is great. I think that that was a huge reason why they won that game. It took three turnovers and all three of those guys not to have any big game changing play type thing. I find hardbly that's gonna happen all the time. And then going back to the whole quarterback situation. Everything's rolling right now and it probably seems great what Jalen Hurts is doing, but also when you do all that read option stuff all the time, you open your quarterback up to take a lot of hits, Oh no, I'm not gonna be judge the same way as a pocket passer. So you know, if you keep doing that, there's gonna be some big time dns that are gonna sit there and guess that the quarterback's gonna keep it, and the quarterback pitched, but he's still getting smoked because that's part of the game. And I understand it was a big deal with dak early on. Ay that success they had with with Zeke early Hey, that was great. They were also young. I don't think you want to be doing that stuff anymore as your quarterback gets older in this league paying them the big time buck. So it works, and it's working right now for them. I just don't know if that can be your plan long term. Robert Griffin was great at it early on, and he got hurt and he wasn't the same quarterback after that. So you, I mean, your point's well taken. I've seen I've seen this year or hurts. I can't remember what game it was, but I remember him getting that call, just like what you're talking about, a read option. He pitches it, then he gets hit and they treat him like a quarterback. Now, I don't think it's you know, and maybe that's part of them in their competition committee going on right now. I mean they're talking about rough of the passer. I mean I have to figure that out somehow, But you're right. I mean, he's gonna get hit a lot. But I do remember a play this year where they did treat him that way, which I think is just it's ridiculous how a guy can run like that and then just slide when he want. Yeah. The other thing too, that could get the Eagles is if they haven't run into an offense yet, that can make them play from behind to where the RPO stuff doesn't mean as much. Yeah. So, and maybe that's the Cowboys on Christmas Eve. Maybe we'll see that where it's you know, they're not as limited offensively, but back to the run defense, knewy Like. I just think the other thing too, like Johns mentioned the miss tackles, and guys kept saying Mike has said it, some other guys I think said it after the game, guys trying to make the splash play and trying I don't know if they're they're so hyped up because they've been playing so well and everybody wants to eat and make the big splash play. Just and maybe that's what Dan was referring to yesterday. Just everybody in their in their assignment and we don't have to be splashy all the time. We're good enough to just be solid. You know, they ask all three because you were all in Philadelphia at the game. Mike McCarthy heavily criticized for not throwing the challenge flag on that CD lamb um on that first down, clearly a first down. He said, you know, I talked to the side judge. I said, nope. How much you think is that warranted for Mike? Yeah, I mean I think thirty coaches at the booth. They bring thirty coaches to the game, so I mean, I don't know what what are all of the functions. I mean, honestly, what what are we doing? I mean, like we're up in the press spot. I mean, I think it was such a critical part at the game. Is your offense is showing nothing. You finally got a first down and it looked like it, and the line judge, right, I mean the side judge she marked first down right in front of him, first down, and then all of a sudden she she went over here, and they said no, they didn't get it, and that's the reason why they were going heavy and all that stuff. I mean, you have to throw the flag. You have to challenge it. You have to stop, if anything, stop this momentum and say figure it out, because you're saying first down, we're trying to go. Now you've changed it. At what is it? And then while you're doing all this figure it out, hopefully one of those guys up in the booths it's like, oh, non, I got to challenge this. Well, we got this, you know. Yeah, Mike McCarthy looked like there was no cast on the sideline. It looked like we're going for this and there was no hesitation. So I do. I do agree with Nick there is you have to question not throwing a challenge flag there. I thought it was a big moment in the game, even though it was still early one two. The play call is just not you can't. That's not what you got to do there. Yeah, I mean, you're way better off punting the ball than if he doesn't roll out. And at that point, Hendershot had never made a catch like that. Yeah in the NFL. And yeah, and maybe with Dak that play call works better because because Dak's a more mobile quarterback. But like I'm with John, and it's not the play call. I wouldn't have called a better player, I would have punted the ball. And we're seeing more offenses and the Rams did it against the Cowboys, be more aggressive and deep in their own territory. But I just you mentioned three turnovers. Knew he is really four because four times you're giving the ball back, and I think it was all in Cowboys territory. You can't win like that, not with your backup quarterback in the game. So I was surprised that he went for it. I know it's fourth and one. I know he trusts his team and it's worked for him in the past, but I was surprised by that. One other thing, I was gonna say, to give the Eagles some props on this, why don't more teams do that line up in the victory formation to have your both your backs back there to push your quarterback. When I saw that, I was like, the Cowboy should do that with dack in and fourth and inch. This type situation now you probably now do it now with the thumb, but you have a big quarterback that's obviously strong. You put you could put you could put Freniac back there or something. And all they're doing is as soon as the ball snap, they just you know, when the Eagles push the quarterback two point conversion with a penny on digs and they got they moved it from the two to the one to go for it. I thought, well, that's exactly what they're gonna do. We've already seen it once. They're gonna do it again. And then they put they made a run or they did something different. I'm just like, why wouldn't you do that? Yeah, that seems like that's gonna work. And hey, we saw in practice last week the Cowboys were working on that. It was a part portion of practice. They told us we couldn't take pictures or talk about or do anything like that. They were clearly working on it. I don't know if you saw him the one, Layton Vanderesh, you know he timed it up perfect and jumped over the top. But it just you got three guys pushing one guy. You're gonna need more help than just one guy superman and over the top there. But it wasn't like they weren't ready for that. They prepared for it. It It just it's a tough it's a tough play to defend. A lot of things coming out of this game where the Cowboys players and coaches can look towards and just say, hey, look, this is where we got to get fixed and get better if we want to go where we want to go. I think you don't want to lose. But when you lose, can you take something from it. There's a lot of things they can take something from it. For me, I go back and think, all right, you went turbo, so you wanted to go get a quick snap. Maybe the best thing to do was all right, wait, you know, let the play clock go, Let your people tell you whether or not to throw it, you know, because as you said, that was a really critical situation right there. But this is what you learned. I mean, this is the stuff Mike always talks about self scout. That's what you do. Yeah, And this is what doesn't make sense about the play call. The hurrying to the line of scrimmage is to be able to snap the ball and keep the Eagles defense personnel the way it is. It was third and nine, right, third and eight. I can't remember, but it was third and nine. So the Eagles got it like a nickel defense out there. You throw it and you get ten. But whatever is it's called short and so and so you turbo to the line of scrimmage, so they can't put Big Jordan Davis and those guys in there and clog it up. So that's why you rush to the line, because even though you got Zeke out there, you're gonna run it and then you do a bootleg that like that makes no sense. Why would you turbo to get them in a nickel situation and then not run it on him box. Yeah, that's a real good point right there. Um, Look, number four is back, it's a new week. There's a lot to learn from fucking conversation. Rob Phillips, Nick Keathman, John was showed up and new rescrist the Medimash will return tomorrow, hide at three o'clock and we'll have a we'll have a fired up clearance. He'll joining us. You're gonna be back tomorrow. I don't know. I just hold on on us doing this tomorrow though, to be serious, because I think they're moving to practice time tomorrow and we might have Mike McCarthy at three, so we'll see you. Yeah, we'll see. It's still kind of up in the air, but I'm just saying, but if it is well, I will be here. That's that's a good point. All right, we may or may not because we operate there something well be something going on at three o'clock. Yeah, all right, that's Medimash. We'll we'll chat to you soon right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.