00:00We bring to you our Dallas Cowboys insider, Mickey Spagnola. Good morning, sir.
00:05Good morning to you guys. How's it going?
00:07Well, it's going pretty crappy, Mickey, as I imagine it is for you as well,
00:13because I kept an eye on the baseball, but I'm telling you,
00:17the White Sox have the Guardians exactly where they want them now,
00:21and going back on the road is going to be the best thing for them.
00:26I wish I could agree with you.
00:30You know what? I just thought at some point their lack of starting pitching
00:35was going to catch up with them, and you can only rely on that bullpen,
00:40and they probably have worn them out in those first four games,
00:45and it looks like they're limping to the finish.
00:49Well, limping to the finish in Game 5.
00:52What a season, though.
00:53Yeah, what a season indeed. I'm still going to hold out hope for you,
00:57and what a colossal disappointment and failure across the board
01:02for the Dallas Cowboys last night.
01:04Is that a fair assessment of the game?
01:06Yeah, I think so.
01:07If you asked me to provide you one word, I would have gone,
01:11yuck, right?
01:12Yeah.
01:13Just really disappointing, especially when you kind of felt like they were
01:20somewhat turning the corner on defense, and then they stay on the field
01:27for 40 minutes.
01:29And that was probably about all the stuff that happened, right?
01:33A 72-yard run, 64-yard pass when the cornerback falls down.
01:43But the fact that they couldn't get off the field,
01:48and that they let an undrafted rookie free agent starting his second NFL game
01:55hold the ball for 40 minutes.
01:58Okay, 39-whatever.
02:00It was 40 to me, right?
02:02That means you only had the ball 20 minutes, and you got no room for error.
02:08And, you know, when I looked at it,
02:12and I understand everything they did offensively,
02:16but they only scored 24 points.
02:19The offense, it's their responsibility.
02:22They know the deal, right?
02:24You got to put up 30.
02:26I'm sorry.
02:27You're not going to win games with 16 points.
02:30And so, as Dak Prescott said, we got a score, and we didn't score.
02:37You know, they were giving up 30 points a game, and they gave up 24.
02:42That should have been enough for us to be able to limit them enough for us to win
02:48if the offense had functioned.
02:50And it did not.
02:53I think we talked about this when we were talking about, you know,
02:57how to control quarterbacks, and my answer has always been,
03:02you don't control the wide receivers.
03:04You got to control the quarterback.
03:06Right.
03:07That'll control the wide receivers.
03:09And that's exactly what Todd Bowles' adopted philosophy was in the game.
03:14We're going after Dak.
03:16We're going to unmercifully blitz him, not let him get comfortable in the pocket,
03:22hit him as many times as we can.
03:24Now, they only sacked him once, and it was a miracle, Houdini Act,
03:29that Dak didn't get sacked about four or five times.
03:32But his accuracy was off, and you can tell when the quarterback's accuracy is off
03:39and he's not comfortable, ten times they had PBUs.
03:44Ten.
03:44And that doesn't happen to him, right?
03:47But that's what happens when you're forcing the ball in or you're in a hurry
03:52and you're not just perfectly reading who's open and who's not.
03:57And I thought that what Todd Bowles and George Edwards did defensively was absolutely brilliant.
04:04So, Mickey did just admit to giving Todd Bowles the answers by telling us on our show
04:09that getting to the quarterback is the way.
04:12Thanks.
04:12No, you said it the other day.
04:14I hope he's not listening, right?
04:17Well, I hope you don't.
04:18Because that's what the Cowboys needed to do with this version of Daniels, right?
04:23Yes.
04:24Let him get comfortable.
04:25And they got one sack, and it was towards the end of the game.
04:29They never made him uncomfortable, and everything got exposed.
04:36But, again, it was 24 points, right?
04:39And so the offense has got to do a better job.
04:43They needed to adjust whatever their blocking schemes were.
04:47I'm not sure they ever got it right.
04:50And then you wait until, what, there was like 535 left in the game,
04:56and they scored their second touchdown.
04:58Not going to win a lot of games scoring two touchdowns.
05:03Yeah, but Todd Bowles also kind of tried, did he not, when he was like,
05:08let's just go for it on fourth and goal when a field goal would clearly end this game.
05:12What did you think about that baffling call?
05:16I thought the Cowboys were going to go 99 and a half yards for a touchdown.
05:21And they did!
05:23I mean, he was playing the percentages there, right?
05:26It was like, all right, if we don't get it, they're going to have to go 99 and a half
05:31yards
05:32to score a touchdown.
05:33And by God, they did, right?
05:36And again, you know, no excuses whatsoever, but the bouncing ball didn't really ever bounce their way.
05:44So let's talk about one of those bounces.
05:46I realize that Deron Bland put himself in a great position to make a pick six,
05:53but that felt like one of the few times he put himself in a great position last night, did it
05:59not?
06:00Yeah.
06:00No, he did.
06:02And, you know, some of the other, you know, he fell down.
06:05Okay, how do you explain that one?
06:07And I don't know that the move was great.
06:09He just tripped and fell.
06:13And so, but yeah, it was like, that's a pick six.
06:16It's going to the house.
06:18And he didn't hold on to it.
06:20And I had visions when he was breaking on the ball.
06:23I said, oh, this is just like a couple years ago when he had all those pick sixes.
06:28And he didn't catch the ball.
06:30And then they have balls bouncing off their receiver's hands, two defenders' hands,
06:36and it gets intercepted by the third guy, right?
06:39None of that turned out well.
06:42And you know what?
06:43I don't know if they were doomed for the beginning when Joey Porter Jr. shows up with a stomach virus
06:52and barely got to the locker room before they said, hey, you know what?
06:56If you're going to keep doing what you're doing, you need to go home.
06:59Well, I mean, in a sense, he would have fit right in with what the defense was doing yesterday, huh?
07:07Well, I don't know that it would have hurt.
07:10But, you know, the other thing is, and maybe it's because they were on the field for 40 minutes.
07:17At the end there, he was using guys that he doesn't play.
07:20I thought some guys were gassed.
07:22I mean, I thought that they just, I mean, at one point,
07:27he had Barron and Shamar James out there playing linebackers.
07:32That's cool.
07:32And Amir Speed played more snaps than I think he has this year, right?
07:38So, yeah, you know, it's too easy to say they were worn out.
07:44But that was of their own doing because they didn't get off the field.
07:49Yeah, and that's a, why do you feel like, I just haven't seen that version of Bland this year.
07:56Why do you feel maybe that he doesn't look like himself right now?
08:00Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on there.
08:04But you can say the same thing about a couple other guys, right?
08:08Yeah, that's for sure.
08:09Did Jake Ferguson look like himself out there?
08:11No, sir.
08:13It was just, I don't know if it's explainable or what.
08:20And, you know, I heard Jerry talked about they had their meetings
08:23and they're trying to come up with solutions.
08:28I just think that at some point, maybe they got to fit the scheme to exactly what they have.
08:37But they were in nickel so much.
08:39So that's a four-man front.
08:40That's two linebackers.
08:42But, again, you're a cornerback or two short of being able to run this defense the way you want to
08:51run it.
08:52I mean, they've got to elevate a guy off the practice squad to start at the nickel corner.
08:58You know, you've got to be deeper than that, you would think.
09:01And I don't think Reddy Stewart's got any more elevations available.
09:06They may have to put him on the 53 if they can't get that position fixed with who's on the
09:1553-man roster right now.
09:17You know, you were just mentioning something a minute ago about playing the percentages.
09:21And I realize in the modern game this is what the percentages say as well.
09:26But I wanted to get your general philosophy on going for two at 24-16.
09:33I realize the Cowboys are by no means the only team that would have done that.
09:38But what do you just think about that as general football philosophy as opposed to just kicking the extra point?
09:45I'd kick the extra point.
09:46And then if I scored that next touchdown and I didn't feel like my team was going to perform well
09:54in overtime,
09:56then I would go for two, right?
09:58Okay, yeah.
09:59With the game on the line.
10:00But to do it early, I guess there's this thought, well, that gives me another chance to do it again.
10:05But when you do it again, you're tying the game.
10:08I just had a feeling now, and this was the only reason I could come up with to why you
10:15would do it then,
10:16that remember when I said the defense looked gassed?
10:20Maybe he thought we need to be able to win this game in regulation and not go into overtime.
10:27And I don't know if all the travel caught up with him.
10:31And I know Tampa Bay had to, you know, travel to this game on a short week.
10:37But they sure didn't have two 10-hour, over-an-hour flights 1,000 miles south of the equator two
10:44weeks ago.
10:45Yeah.
10:47I hear you on that.
10:49So that's the only way I could qualify going for two and thinking I've got to win this game in
10:55regulation.
10:56Well, we appreciate the time.
10:57You know the drill for us.
10:59We'll gather ourselves over the weekend with some rationality.
11:02And we'll do this again on Monday.
11:05Are you saying there's not much rationality today?
11:09No!
11:09I'm really pissed off still, Mickey, so I don't have rationality today.
11:16That's pretty good.
11:17I love it.
11:18All right.
11:18Thank you very much, good sir.
11:19We'll catch you again Monday.
11:21See ya.
11:22Bye-bye.
