00:00a former NFL executive, the best man at Brian's wedding, you'll hear him on the GM shuffle
00:20podcast. It's the great Michael Lombardi here with you on the fan. And a good afternoon,
00:25sir. How the heck are you? I'm doing great. Thank you. How are you guys? You recovered
00:29everything good. That storm was a bad one last week. Yeah. Yeah. We've had some storms.
00:34We've had some disappointing Cowboys football. A big question here this week, sir, is a Niners.
00:42One of your former teams kind of vulnerable. Are they down enough? The Cowboys could actually
00:47beat them. Oh, I think it'll be a close game. Yeah. I mean, look, the Niners have really
00:51struggled that they went from being one of the most explosive offenses when they were
00:55in base personnel with McCaffrey, Iuke, Kittle, Debo, you know, and then you sprinkle in,
01:02you know, Jennings and whomever else they want to put on the field. They were fast and
01:06now they're slow as can be. They have no explosiveness. And if they can't get the run game going,
01:12which they should be able to against Dallas, you know, it makes it really hard.
01:15I thought pretty played one of his worst games going back to when he played against Baltimore
01:18at home on, I think it was Thanksgiving night. You know, that was the time he played poorly.
01:23This is a team that is typical of teams that go to the Superbowl and lose. They have a
01:29lot of injuries. They don't have the same drive, the same motivation that they had.
01:33I think they're tired. And I think yesterday they really were never in that game. It might
01:38have been 14 to 12, but the Kansas City Chiefs defense was just way too superior to the 49er
01:45offense. So look, this is against two teams that used to be really good, but aren't as
01:49good anymore.
01:50What are some of the issues you've been seeing with the Cowboys? A lot was made with Troy
01:54Aikman's comments about the route running at receiver. Mike McCarthy said, I don't really
01:59agree with the choice of words there from Troy, but what are some of the things out
02:04of the bi-week? I mean, can you even do much in the bi-week to correct all their problems?
02:07Well, you shouldn't be able to do a lot. You got to self-scout the hell out of it, right?
02:11You got to sit down in a room and say, why are we 31st at red zone offense? Why are we
02:1531st at red zone defense? I mean, that's the number one thing they got to do. Forget about
02:19the route runner. They got to figure out how to get the ball in the end zone and keep
02:22the other team from getting it in the end zone. That's the way you win games.
02:25Look, everybody's got an opinion on what's wrong with the Cowboys. I said it last offseason,
02:30everybody laughed at me. I don't think they're as talented as the media has made them out
02:33to be. They've got some really talented players, but they've got some huge concerns in both
02:38lines, especially a defensive tackle. They're not very big at linebacker. People can run
02:42the football. Look, you know, Mike Zimmer didn't become a bad coach overnight, right?
02:47They can coach. They know what they're doing. They just can't seem to get it with the personnel.
02:51You know, three things happen to a football team. And, you know, I've said this and I
02:55wrote about it in Gridiron Genius. Football teams are like going to the veterinarian.
03:01They don't talk to you. You have to have systems in place to diagnose what's wrong. Just like
03:06a vet does. You bring your dog to the vet, the dog doesn't tell the vet what ails them.
03:10The vet figures it out. It's the same thing with football teams. It's either players,
03:13coaches or schemes, right? And I really think as much heat as Mike McCarthy gets, his schemes
03:18are good, right? And I think he coaches well offensively, but I just don't know if they
03:24have enough. And especially when they have a clutch, they don't have a running game,
03:27which kills them. You know, look, Goff threw the ball 25 times. Goff's on this incredible
03:32three-game streak where he's not thrown any completions. He hasn't thrown the ball more
03:35than 25 times in a game because they can balance it. Look, I know this. You can't run the football
03:40and score points. I get that, right? But what the running game does for you is control
03:45the game. You get control of the football game when you can run it. And then it allows
03:49you to make big plays down the field in terms of play-action pass. The Cowboys have no running
03:54game. They never are going to be in control of the game, ever. And because they can't
03:58run the ball effectively, they don't have as much explosiveness down the field. Those
04:02are two things that go hand in hand. So look, I think that's the problem offensively and
04:07defensively. I think it's really a talent issue. They have no tackles. Their corner
04:11situation isn't as good as it's been. And when they can't play from in front, right?
04:15Okay. So last year they led the National Football League in 124-point differential at halftime.
04:20Most important stat in all of football. First-half point differential. They were number one in that
04:24category. This year they're behind in a half. So teams can keep running the ball. Last year
04:28they ran the ball on the Cowboys. Just nobody paid attention to it. In the five losses,
04:32they gave up massive amount of run yards in those games because they didn't have to,
04:36they weren't playing from ahead.
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