Buccaneers shock Cowboys in Dallas, 24-16

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2:22Robert Mays: Welcome to the athletic football show brought to you by the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. Man, a lot to dig into with this Thursday night game. A tough performance from the Cowboys overall. The offense looking out of sorts, the defense continuing to really struggle, which we dug into. Man, I could not have been more wrong about how the Dallas defense would look. I still, there's still a chance you turn it around. It's five games of a new coordinator, but it has been a tough, tough start. We talked about all the reasons that bleed into that. Some of the moments from this game, the Jake Ferguson dropped the Todd Bowles decision to kick the field goal and not go up three scores.

2:58Robert Mays: There's just so much to dig into. Let's get to it with me, Dave and Derek right now.

3:08Robert Mays: The game was a rich text. That's how I'll start this conversation. And I, I want to kick things off that way because I don't even know where to begin with what just happened. I think we can. There are two logical starting points. One, Jake Ferguson, you're killing me. Like you're you're killing me. The fact that Dallas still had a chance to go down and score a touchdown and potentially tie that game. The ball hits him in the face. It gets intercepted. The game is essentially over. Or we could start at Todd Bowles. You're killing me. You're killing me. The idea of not going up three scores and kicking that field goal with like nine minutes left in the game.

3:45Robert Mays: But those are like moments. Those are specific moments in a game that requires a lot of big picture discussions. So I really I'm going to leave this to Dave. Dave, I want to know where you want to start this discussion. I thank you for saying so. And I won't I won't make a demand because we are a democracy and I am just one of three members of this show. So I will just humbly submit that we start this conversation by getting these guys the hell off the table. I'm totally fine with that. Here's my question. Do we just leave it open for now? It's Thursday. I don't think we have to fill the seat right now.

4:22Robert Mays: We can wait until Sunday night. We can wait until Tyson Bajan goes for like 380 on Sunday and then we'll figure it out. brother i would i'd put the bears i would put the bears at the table sight unseen before i wanted to entertain the cowboys right now i'm totally fine taking them off i'm totally fine taking them off at the end of sunday we'll decide who gets to go on i think that that's not an issue whatsoever for

4:45Dave Helman: me i i'm outvoted anyway so it doesn't matter i am not if only for like i'm not gonna hold a i know that this is a very bad loss i'm not gonna hold a thursday night game this badly against a team that I still think their offense can be the best in the NFL. We just saw them play a really good game against the Ravens. They beat the shit out of the Houston Texans in the second half of that game. They are still a very flawed team, and I don't know if this defense is going to get better. I'm at least willing to hold the seat, but if I'm going to be outvoted two for one, it is what it is, and they're going to get removed.

5:17Dave Helman: If the defense figures it out, I will lobby for them to be back on.

5:20Robert Mays: And that's fine. If they do, then we'll lobby to put them back on. Listen, we'll talk about the defense. I think part of my enthusiasm for putting them on is I thought the defense might be surprisingly competent. That was always the thought, by the way, is that they might be surprisingly competent. They would have a chance to be like the 17th best defense in the league. That has not happened. And we can talk about why that hasn't happened. But because that hasn't come into focus, even if the offense is the best offense in football, the defense is bad enough. And the offense is clearly inconsistent enough where for now, I'm fine doing this.

5:55Robert Mays: and if we need to put them on back on a little bit later because the defense finds its footing and they feel like a different team over the course of the season fine we have the ability to do that but for now I'm with Dave like you should be punished for what just happened the way the way the defense is playing even if the offense was perfect it might not be good enough and I this is totally vibes based in the moment but like immediately after that 11 minute bucks drive at the start of this game, I found myself thinking Dak's freaked out. Dak is freaked out by how bad this defense looks and he's pressing.

6:29Dak is incredible against the blitz. He's like, he's do you disagree?

6:35Robert Mays: The defense wasn't that bad in the first half. The defense was actually fine for the most part in the first half. They gave up an 11 minute scoring drive to an undrafted rookie starting his first road game. Because they gave up a defensive holding penalty on a third down drive ending sack. Duran Bland was - They're gonna do that because they're bad, yeah. They did it like five times tonight. I don't think the defense was that bad in the first half. The run defense was actually looking pretty good in the first half. In the second half is when we had some issues. There is a lot happening with the defense and we can dig into it if you want to.

7:11Robert Mays: I am fully willing to admit this has been out of sorts from the beginning. They've had a different set of problems seemingly every single game. I think that if you watch what happened to the defense today, there were not that many moments where you watch a call or you watch a choice schematically on a given play, and I'm like, what are you doing? There were a couple of them. The third and 20 is indefensible. Like indefensible on every single level to give that up. The call, the way they played the call. I mean, Bland is getting so much depth sitting there in quarters on that play. He lets Ibuka just sit down at the sticks.

7:51Robert Mays: You bring, that play is indefensible. For the most part, I think the defensive issues in this game are personnel and execution based. Bland falls, there were, on the first three scoring drives, you had a sack that should have ended the drive where Bland gets called for a defensive hold. on the second scoring drive, you have just abysmal tackling on the Bucky Irving run. Just abysmal. You watch what Hooker and D Winters, and that's Bland, D Winters, and then we can talk about Rashawn Gary a little bit too, but Marcus Bell, like all three of those guys look unplayable right now. So you have two guys miss the tackle in the hole on the huge Bucky Irving run that eventually leads to a touchdown drive.

8:30Robert Mays: And on the third touchdown drive, Bland falls down. Like, I think that overall, this is a combination of personnel deficiencies, still feeling a little bit out of sorts. And I think if you're going to put any of this on the coordinator and any of this on the coaching staff, they're playing incredibly slow up front. If you go back to the Bland play, on the Bland play, I still don't understand exactly what was happening. Donovan has a Raku specifically. It just feels like his head is spinning. He's, I think, supposed to be running a stunt on that play, but he never even gets close to the line of scrimmage.

9:07Robert Mays: So that to me is the problem. I think some of the execution, like the communication errors from the first couple of games have actually been ironed out and look a lot better than they did. But the entire defense is just playing so, so slow. And when you combine that with the fact that they're banged up in a lot of places and the personnel wasn't even that good to begin with, you get a defense that looks like this right now.

9:30Dave Helman: I mean, I don't really disagree with that, but I just don't know what they are doing defensively that is supposed to make up for any of this. Like, I mean, like you said, I just don't think that they're playing fast. I don't think it's so passive. It's so passive. It's like, I just don't get it. This is the problem with every Fangio guy is they come in and they're like, I'm just going to do what the base calls are supposed to be. And it always feels too slow, too passive. Things are not going well. And sometimes some of those guys can figure it out. You know, I think we've seen that at some point, but usually early on with these guys, it takes a while I will say on the other end in terms of like shooting themselves in the foot because I think execution wise and some of the penalties the Dallas Cowboys defense absolutely did that in the first half though there was a drive where the Bucks were driving got to midfield and they get into the third and one they're trying to go fast Tristan Wirth goes off or gets a false start uh and then on the ensuing third and six Jalen Daniels there's a throw open to the left that they scheme up like with a little bit of like a bunch uh thing and he just doesn't see it he gets Yeah, I think scrambles for like one yard and it's fourth and five.

10:31Dave Helman: And then the Bucks don't know what the hell they're doing. They don't know if they want to punt. They don't know if they want to kick. They don't want to go. They try to kick. They don't end up getting a snap off in time. And so it was like even they had a little bit of like kind of shooting themselves in the foot in a situation where I did think they were driving and we're going to go and put points on the board. Al Michaels said on the broadcast that that kick was short, but I talked to multiple people in the stadium who said they thought it was made, by the way. So like that whole, that whole fiasco, I guess I don't know for sure.

11:00Cause I wasn't there, but I think it might've cost the bucks points. So, I mean, coupling, coupling that with the decision to, to go for the touchdown instead of kicking, which Todd Bowles is so famous for being so conservative. And the one time I was like, I don't know, man, three score lead under like five minutes. Like this, this feels right to me. You got a rookie quarterback. Like, I don't think we need to overthink this, but they got away with it largely. And I hear your point, Robert. I think there's validity to that. I'm not like calling for Christian Parker's job, but Deron Bland signed a$90 million contract.

11:37Not only did he fall down on that explosive, he dropped a potential pick six that changes the way this game ends. And I do, I'm feeling a little petty because that game was so ridiculous. Deron Bland and Jake Ferguson are two of the guys the Cowboys prioritize to spend their money on after deciding Micah Parsons wasn't in their future. And this is what you get. Jake Ferguson selling not just in the not just at the end of the pick, obviously, but a drop on first down that leads to a field goal instead of potentially getting a touchdown before half. And then, I mean, Deron Bland is he's like borderline unplayable just as an NFL cornerback.

12:16The fact that he is like one of your big contract guys is it's it's incredibly depressing if you're the Cowboys. I mean, you have to find a way to overcome that. I don't know how. But like, you know, if Reddy Stewart had fallen down on that play, I'm like, well, you're like, that's Reddy Stewart. What are you going to do? This is supposed to be like the tentpole of your secondary. And the fact that that's the caliber of play you're getting from these guys is absolutely brutal.

12:44Robert Mays: there's so many it's coming from so many different directions i think christian parker deserves a ton of culpability in this i was extremely wrong about how good this would look at least early i'm with you as a young coordinator we're five games in and the personnel it was always going to be a tough needle to thread with the personnel like and the fact that the personnel was always going to be middle of the pack at best and i thought they might be lifted by the scheme well now you're banged up jalen thompson isn't playing you traded for joey porter he doesn't play in this game and it's a combination of you don't have all the guys you thought you would have.

13:16Robert Mays: Even the plan has had to change because now Caleb Downs is playing safety because you're banged up there. You're having to move around those pieces. And the guys you've invested real money in are some of your biggest offenders at this point. Like Bland looks borderline unplayable. When Joey Porter gets back, I think you have to have a real conversation about whether he should be one of your starting outside corners. I don't think that's unreasonable at this point. And the other guy that they invested a ton in this offseason, you talk about butterfly effect stuff from the Micah Parsons trade. What is Gary doing for you?

13:49Robert Mays: What is he doing for you? He can't rush the passer. He can't stop the run. And so you have these guys that you've really invested in. And they're some of your biggest defenders at this point. And so you're not getting lifted schematically. Everyone's playing extremely slow. Your personnel was you're already trying to just kind of get by and be a middle of the pack group. and now the bottom has fallen out of that, everybody deserves blame here. I am fully willing to admit that this has not gone the way that I thought it was going to go. But when you think about the injuries combined with the play that you're getting from some of your highest paid players, there's a lot of blame to be passed around with this thing.

14:24You already made this point, but man, watching the Cowboys rush and blitz, and especially contrasted with what the Bucs were doing. 100%. I totally agree with that.

14:35Robert Mays: You think about watching Azaraku compared to watching David Walker in this game. Just think about that. Think about the contrast between those two players specifically and how different that looks. It's crazy. I'm like, Rashawn Gary looked like he was running on the beach in this game. It was tough. And on the Bucky Irving run, Kirk Herbstreit pointed this out on the broadcast. Like, Jayshon Barham blitzed up the A-gap on that play, and Graham Barton just kind of caught him. He was like, oh, that's cool. That's what you're going to do. That's cool. Like, that's not a problem for me. It just it didn't look remotely dangerous from the word go.

15:13And Bucky Irving just kind of danced around it. It like it. It was so slow, like everything about their efforts to get after the football were so slow. Barham has been good.

15:26Robert Mays: Barham, especially as a run defender. I would agree for the most part. Yeah, he's far away from the issue. Go watch Dean Winter. Don't go watch Dean Winters on that play. Oh, I mean, that after that has been it's been so bad. After Bucky danced around the blitz, it was like Keystone Cops like you saw or like it was like watching Tom and Jerry where you were like the guys just dive into the cloud of debris and Jerry like skirts out the side. Like it abysmal, abysmal defense. We we talked about this when I was trying to I was just coping so hard after the week one game against the Giants and I will continue to do so.

16:02Robert Mays: We talked about how defenses have turned things around early in the season under first-year coordinators and how sometimes you need a pretty dramatic shift in order to make that comeback happen. This team needs to pressure more and play more, man. They have to. It's a way to potentially get more out of your corners who are more comfortable playing this way. If it's Bland and Porter on the outside, this is how you should play. You have so few answers. I think you have to play this way. And I also think some of their best moments when you watch the front are when they're just letting those guys go.

16:38Robert Mays: Just let them go. You have Quinn and Williams. You have to. I think you have to start playing that way if you're going to dig yourself out of this. Because to me, it's the only antidote to how passive they look overall. And I think it's potentially a path for you to get better play on the back end. The Eagles last year, Blitzen played a lot of man coverage. like that is in the bag if you want to start going to it based on your personnel and I truly think that might be the only thing that's going to save them because I watch the way the front is playing right now and everyone you just feel the gears turning that to me is where the coaching shows up I don't think there are a ton of like really terrible coverage busts in this game your biggest incompletion that you gave up as a guy falling down but you just feel how held back everyone is right now, especially with the front.

17:26Robert Mays: And I just don't think you can get by playing that way. And your coverage has to be so good and so complete on the back end. And it just isn't.

17:33Dave Helman: They're just not right now. They need to play more like the Patriots are trying to play more like the Chiefs have tried to play this year. The Rams are trying to play this way where it's a little bit more man coverage and blitz stuff like they that is probably the mode that they need to get into, which I kind of had concerns about coming in where I was like, I don't know if you guys can play the Fangio style of defense that you want to play. And I think it's obviously been even worse than I would have imagined because I was probably with you I could have I thought they could have got to 22nd in DVOA and been like totally competent not good but you can get by they feel like they are still very far from that I think the the two biggest dominoes in that in

18:09Robert Mays: my opinion are you look at bland you look at the contract you think oh this is a better situation maybe he'll be okay and it's been the opposite of that I mean he's been part of the problem and when And if that's as far, in terms of expectations about what a guy would be, I never had high hopes about Duran Bland, but I think you look at that spot and you're like, oh, well, they have a corner there. That'll be okay. And then that didn't happen. And you lose, again, you lose Jalen Thompson. You lose Kobe Durant. You lose kind of the connective tissue guys in the secondary that were supposed to make this thing feel decent, capable.

18:42Robert Mays: And it just hasn't felt that way at all. And I think you need a drastic left turn if you're going to try to salvage this thing, because right now I don't know what else the answer would be. If you're trying to take a 30 ,000 foot view, it is, it's a, it's a valid point that like, I mean, Durant and PJ Locke and Jalen Thompson, PJ Locke too. Yeah. Whatever, whatever happened with Joey Porter. I mean, he was not expected to miss this game. That was like a surprise scratch an hour before kickoff or 90 minutes before kickoff. And so, yeah, when all those guys are available, might this look better?

19:15Yes. but did they have enough to not look like that against Jalen Daniels? Yes. Absolutely. Unquestionably, yes.

19:23Robert Mays: Especially up front. There's no excuse for what the front looks like right now. I'm at a spot where I want to see more Malachi Lawrence, and I want to see this team play with a little bit more reckless abandon and how they're treating some of those situations. Unless that starts happening, I think we're going to be in a bad way. All right, before we move on, let's take a quick break. Football season has arrived, and with the U.S. Bank's Smartly Visa signature card, you earn an unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase, including at the stadium or at home, watching on a brand new TV. Score big with unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase.

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22:26Robert Mays: blame from what the offensive performance looks like in this game and on that side again I think Jalen Daniels deserves a lot of credit for coming in on the road short week undrafted rookie and playing more than well enough to win I mean he had some big plays and big moments I don't want this to be all about the Cowboys I'll say in terms of which unit I really want to heap a lot of praise on with the Bucs their defense controlled this game was awesome they controlled this game and And I can't remember, Derek, I'm sure, I'm not sure if you can either, and Dave, you've seen him play a million games.

23:02Robert Mays: When's the last time we saw Dak like that? Where it just seemed like they had the wrong answer no matter what the Bucs were doing. And that, to me, was the most impressive part of this is that it's easy to be like a face-melting blitz team and catch teams in the wrong moments sometimes, but the amount of simulated, the first interception, right? Their plan, we got to get the ball out quick. They're going to heat us up. Instead, they run a simulated. They drop the two edges off the back. I think it was Walker, maybe again, who was in the passing lane on that play. Gets tipped, gets intercepted.

23:34Robert Mays: And that ball is coming out fast because they think there's pressure coming. Instead, they're bringing four. And you're wrong on the choice that you're making. And it seemed like through the first three, three, three and a half quarters, that's exactly where the Cowboys offense was. That every single time they had the wrong answer for whatever bowls in that defense were going to be bringing. And they were just trying to find a foothold the entire game and couldn't do it.

23:57Dave Helman: I think what was so impressive to me about that is it felt like for the first half ish, you were getting a lot of these. You know, Tampa was doing some of the double mug stuff and Dallas was initially trying to block it up. And then let's throw 11 to 20 yard iso routes. Let's hit George Pickens on a deep stop route. Let's throw one to CD, all this sort of stuff. And the corners were playing so aggressive. They were not drives on that deep comeback.

24:21Robert Mays: They were all over that stuff.

24:22Dave Helman: parish had a couple too like the corners they're not let's talk about jacob parish he had what four breakups in this game like he was he was phenomenal and even the first uh completion he gives up to pickens on the first drive that is airtight and that's just sometimes george pickens and dac are going to do that to you but i thought so that was how uh you know dac and the cowboys were trying to handle the blitz at first and then it felt like in the second half they were like all right blocking it up and throwing the shot ish plays the intermediate stuff that's not working We're going to try to go quick.

24:51Dave Helman: And then you get that play where that's happening. And then you had another I think it was a third or a fourth down later in the game where they're trying to throw hot to the left hand side because Tampa is showing this like seven man on the line of scrimmage. Look, Josiah Trotter slowly creeps off the line of scrimmage. He doesn't just pop and fly out where Dak would see it. He like slow plays, takes a beat and then he flies, undercuts it. Dak has to throw it high. It's an incompletion. Like, I just think it's not even just the calls that they're getting in. It's seeing how well Walker is passing off three to get to two and drive on it.

25:23Dave Helman: It's seeing how Josiah Trotter is adding this little bit of nuance where he's slow playing it. So then he can get under and get a hand on it late. It's it's the little coaching detail details in it. On top of what I was saying with the corners in the first half where it's like, this is what the Todd Bulls defense should be. You play well enough against the run. You get into these downs and you melt people's faces with this stuff.

25:44Robert Mays: they did just they had the upper hand the entire game it just the upper hand the entire game it was an incredibly impressive performance by the coaching staff and the guys that were bringing that thing to life that's what i was uh the the point i was going to make earlier is like dac's been he's not like he hasn't been incredible against the blitz but like his numbers this year have been really good it's like 0.14 epa per drop back against the blitz completing 76 of his passes Last time I looked before I logged on, he was like one of nine against the blitz for like five or six yards or something like that.

26:16Like to to the point you made, I just I don't remember the last time I saw him that flustered by what somebody was throwing at him. It would it would have to be like within the first two or three years of his career, if I had to guess. And as long as we're heaping praise on the Bucks defense, I can't say I'm surprised because Todd Bowles does no defense and and knows blitzes. They know what to do with Keontae Scott, too, by the way. Like they have they absolutely had the right idea for Keontae Scott. And man, I I'm not like I don't have a sweeping take on Ruben Bain. He just got back from injury like he missed the last two games anyway, whatever.

26:55but Keontae Scott and Josiah Trotter, independent of whatever Ruben Baines got going on. Like you gotta be thrilled about those guys. If you're a bucks fan.

27:03Robert Mays: And Techie Smith was a demon as a blitzer in this game too. I mean, they just were all. They're not like there. I really like this defense. I don't know what the numbers look like right now. And like, I mean, I look amazing. I mean, they've been a top five defense by EPA per play. I mean, I think it's just one of those. It's the first month of the season. Is this real? What, what is real? but you watch a performance like tonight and it's like, man, this is, they're locked in right now. Alex Anzalone has had a rough start to the year, but like everything else about the bucks defense, I'm, I'm pretty in on, I like the way it looks.

27:36Robert Mays: And Antoine Winfield didn't even play tonight. Right.

27:38Dave Helman: And Benjamin Morrison is not out there helping them like in the secondary, like this, I think Todd Bowles at this stage in his career is a fine to solid defensive mind. And it's maybe not as like electric as he had been five, six years ago, but I just continue to look at this defensive roster. I'm like, they feel too talented to not make it work. And I would even say this year, like Zion McCollum is playing better football than I've ever seen him play. I think the safeties are playing really, really well. Josiah Trotter is about as good as you can reasonably hope a second round rookie is going to be.

28:10Dave Helman: Like, I just, I'm excited about where this is going to go. They're still going to be, Robert, you've mentioned it before, sometimes late in the season, the Tide Bulls defenses just fall apart. but if they can be good enough for the next eight weeks that this team can crawl back to like 500 respectability for, for now that's all you're hoping for in the middle of an NFL season. And I do think that that's possible.

28:32Robert Mays: I wonder if the offense is going to have that gear. That that's, that's, that's the thing I keep coming back to. I mean, I worry about it. A lot of things. Yeah. When you're, when you're not playing the worst defense in the NFL, what is that going to look like? I still think, I mean, Bucky looks really good. the fact that he's healthy with that offensive line i do think there's a path forward potentially for the run game i just wonder outside of abuka like who are the past game threats on this team and how do we feel about the quarterback in a situation that might be fine over the course of the season but isn't explicitly good like the circumstances that he's playing in in this offense with zach robinson like what can you reasonably expect to get from baker coming back from injury in a couple of weeks.

29:13Robert Mays: But the defense, I don't really have reason to think they can't keep them in games if they continue to play this way.

29:20Dave Helman: I wish they had one more player where when they have the ball, I'm scared of them. Like, but he's got some pop. Like when he's healthy, he does have a little bit of that. But like, that's not really what Emeka Ibuka does. Like they're trying to do some of this jet handoff stuff with Chris Godwin. And at this stage in his career, that's not really what he is. Like K-Dotten from Tita, and that's not really what he is. And so they have guys who are like fine and can get to their spots, can make some decent plays moving the chains. But the pop in the offense, like other than Bucky Irving, it's like you're hoping that you hit one of the Ted Hurst go balls or something like that.

29:51Dave Helman: And that just doesn't feel like enough. That was the name I was going to mention.

29:53Robert Mays: Over the course of the season, can he be somebody that gives you some explosive plays? Again, I think right now I would have long-term concerns about the passing game, but the offensive line is still filled with good players. Bucky looks really good now that he's healthy again. And can you eventually find enough in that area and when Baker gets healthy to make yourself relevant in the NFC South. I'm not, I was going to say, I don't think that ship has sailed yet. It's a 1050 on a Thursday. We're making pirate jokes, but yeah. Go for it. I'm not sure the ship has sailed for Tampa quite yet, but I still think it's a pretty narrow path, in part because the other teams in the NFC South look pretty good.

30:37Robert Mays: The Panthers' office looks good. The Falcons just are more of an impediment that you might have thought coming into the year. Like if the NFC South is what we thought the NFC South was going to be coming into the season, and we just watched this Bucs team at one and four, and everyone else is two and two at best, it's like, okay, maybe. But I just think overall, the quality of the division is just probably better than we thought it was going to be. And not because the Saints are good, which is very funny. I do, I agree with the premise. I do think, I think the NFC South is better than we probably gave it credit for.

31:07And I think at least some of the stuff we're seeing is real ish. But, you know, I was listening to the show you did with Deontay on the feed this week, and we don't know yet. We don't know anything like I'm not willing to like write in Sharpie that the Panthers and Falcons are like definitely good teams. I did. But I do. I do think I mean, just by virtue of the fact that they're one in four, that is a hell of a steep hill to climb. And especially when we don't have a timetable for Baker yet. I mean, I do. I want to say one more time. It is incredibly cool that Jalen Daniels won this job unexpectedly during training camp, played the Packers tough in his debut and then won this game.

31:49And like they said, he started eight of eight in this game and is the first undrafted rookie to do so in the Super Bowl era. Like some really cool shit. Like good. Good for you, Jalen Daniels. I don't know if it means the Bucks are going to win the NFC South, but it's pretty damn cool.

32:04Robert Mays: he can clearly play i mean you watch him he is he's not out of his depth at all and again even if you want to say that the cowboys defense is reeling right now it absolutely is but i you can still against a reeling defense still look like you're not made for this or you're you're not you don't belong out there he absolutely does i mean what he's been able to do with his legs a couple of throws he made the best i mean even being willing to try that whole shot that bell ends up breaking up i mean that is a good ball like that's very close to being completed in a ridiculous way and so i agree i mean it's he clearly belongs out there he's got a lot of

32:46Dave Helman: juice to him and it's a great story and it was fun to watch he's a gamer like he just does stuff and and like he's just even like when you can tell he doesn't know what he's seeing yet or there's a blitz he's like so fast to just be like all right screw it pull the ripcord I'm gonna go and he I just he's like a good enough athlete to do that the thing I want to say like because I think some of the eye test stuff is pretty impressive for him especially again UDFA this is your second start ever it's prime time short week this is obviously a really small sample among quarterbacks with at least 40 attempts he would be 10th in success rate right now it's above Joe Burrow and Josh Allen and obviously like what they're asking those quarterbacks to do is way different it's very different defenses but like he's he's hey man the ball man we know what it looks like when a guy winds up in this situation and he's not ready for it like it looks like cooper yes yes like yeah even if even if that's fake and like it is obviously like jalen daniels is not better than joe burrow or some of those other guys but even if it's fake that's

33:43Robert Mays: incredibly impressive yeah yeah i'm looking at the numbers right now jalen daniels had a 2.92 time to throw per next gen and the Cowboys finished with a 20 % pressure rate. Can't happen. Tough. Can't happen. And it's to me that that was the thing that really jumped out today is that there were a couple of slips in the back end, but just how passive and just how little you feel the front in passing situations is it really did come back to just completely torpedo them today. How many more draft picks is Jerry Jones willing to part with between now and November 1st? Eh? Eh? Khalil Mack, come on down.

34:27I've heard worse ideas after watching that pass rush. He's still playing pretty well, I'll tell you what.

34:31Robert Mays: I've heard worse ideas. I mean, it's the one play. Go look at the, I think it was like an 11-yard run for Bucky in the second half, which was, again, it was like not one of the biggest plays, but it was one of their successful runs when they didn't have a ton in the first half. The movement that Luke Kadecki gets on Von Miller on that play and how large the C-gap looks on that play, that can't happen. We got some different guys need to be getting some different snap counts on the edge right now for the Cowboys, whether they're in the building or they're not. But we'll have a long time to talk about that.

35:07Robert Mays: We can revisit it on Sunday when we talk about the fact that the Cowboys are no longer at the table and they have to be replaced. Maybe by Sunday night, we'll just put them back on, depending on how everybody else disappoints us. I don't know. We don't have to do this now in terms of who the real contenders are, but I think there's absolutely a chance by the time Sunday wraps up, we have teams that we feel better about than Dallas. And I'm glad you said that, Dave, because, again, I do think that it's just so hard to make any sort of proclamations after four weeks, even after five weeks. Just think back to some of the stuff we said five weeks into last season, even halfway into last season.

35:41Robert Mays: We do that every single year. It's just the nature of the beast. It's more so, I think the way to frame it right now is who do you feel better about, right? Do you feel better about X team or this team? And that's kind of stuff being surprising. And in the NFC South, I think that's what I go back to. It's like, even with, in terms of offenses, who do you feel better about right now? The Panthers offense, the Falcons offense, or the Bucs offense? Like who's third in that pecking order? The Bucs by a lot. It's probably the Bucs. And that may change as we get new information and as the season unfolds.

36:15Robert Mays: But right now, that's, I think, where I land with it as well. And kind of a weird place to be considering what the heights we... Think about where we were at the end of the 2024 season with the Bucs' offensive infrastructure compared to a couple of those other teams. I mean, it does feel very different than our expectations. And I think that, to me, is why I would push back on the idea that even at one and four, the Bucs can maybe force themselves back into the discussion here. All right. That is all we've got for Thursday Night Football. We will be back on Sunday. If you're listening to this on the podcast feed, the week five preview is available for you guys to listen to right now.

36:57Robert Mays: If you're watching this on YouTube on Friday, that will be available at about 12 p.m. Central. Really encourage you guys to check that out for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you very soon.

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