- 7 hours ago
The K&C Masterpiece recapped the Cowboys' performance against the Texans. They discussed game management decisions, Brandon Aubrey’s field goal attempts, special teams coverage, and more.
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00:00Second down at the Houston 12. Prescott back, throwing, and go! Lamb! Lamb! Lamb to the post!
00:09C.D. Lamb! Unbelievable! 12-yard touchdown! Dallas has regained the lead!
00:20Brad Sham, very excited right here on the call last night for what C.D. Lamb was doing.
00:25That made everybody happy. A lot of people, a lot of people during the postgame show,
00:29I don't know if it was the same for you, Fred, during the post post, were calling in, requesting that.
00:34As a matter of fact, later on in the show today, I got a shout-out directly to Fred.
00:40Somebody had a question about you over the weekend for me.
00:44And I was like, what?
00:45Yeah, yeah, dude! And I was like, I'll just tell you this. I'll tell you this.
00:49I told him immediately, I said, he's one of the best hangs you'll ever have.
00:52So I'll tell you what.
00:53Was there concern about, like, you know, is this guy as obnoxious in person as he is on the air?
00:58I have to wait until the wankers and winners of the weekend.
01:02So we'll get to that coming up from 2021-20 today.
01:04Man, what a tease.
01:05I am kind of curious, did this game change your mind, 877-881-1053, on the season?
01:14Did this change your mind about the progression of the team?
01:18But I wanted, while you're texting in that, I wanted to kind of break down a little bit about what
01:22was going on.
01:23On the timeout scenario that D'Amico Ryan's, I think D'Amico Ryan's a fantastic coach.
01:28I know he put together a defense that was so good last year, and their offense couldn't figure it out.
01:34And this year, they all look a little lost in what they're trying to accomplish right now.
01:39They do.
01:40But D'Amico Ryan's, it worked for him in the first half at the end with calling all the timeouts.
01:47Knowing Schottenheimer wants to score, will pass the ball, knowing all these things about what Schottenheimer wanted to do,
01:54but giving himself an opportunity to snag three points before the half,
01:59knowing that the Cowboys would have the ball on the other side of the first, in the second half.
02:02So it looked like a genius call.
02:05And quite honestly, this is where I'm at with the whole stop kick and field goals from 60 yards.
02:12If you're going to flip field position in their favor and give them an easy three points,
02:16it's not valuable anymore to you.
02:18And I know that Brandon Aubrey has the leg of a god.
02:22But A, you can't block it right now.
02:25And B, if you're going to miss, it's a tough miss if you're going to give them field position.
02:31It's the proverbial, you're a genius if it works, you're an idiot if it doesn't.
02:36And in the second half, going down to the final minutes of the game,
02:40it looked like it didn't work in his favor because the Cowboys, in my opinion,
02:45I want the Cowboys frantic.
02:47Yeah.
02:48Now, maybe he's concerned that his defense is a little frantic,
02:51but I want the Cowboys going, oh crap, and not having time to make decisions and communicate.
02:57Cowboys against the Ravens were trying to rush things
03:00to get some things done, and then they overthought it a little too much.
03:04And I don't know, I think that they had a very clear plan of what they wanted,
03:07and it gave them a little extra time to calm down in that big moment.
03:12And I just thought that if I was D'Amico Ryan's,
03:14I would have wanted that clock ticking down on them
03:16and forcing them to make a panic move.
03:19But again, you're right, because it didn't work,
03:22now it doesn't look that good to me.
03:23No, I mean, I think, I mean, here's the thing about the whole Brandon Aubrey deal, right,
03:29is this guy was, I mean, the greatest kicker since Jan Stenerud for the last three or four years, right?
03:36And, you know, I mean.
03:38I got to go look up Jan Stenerud real quick.
03:41I mean, this guy could do no wrong.
03:44And, you know, we're over here busting shoddies, you know what,
03:47because he had this guy kick a 65-yard field goal.
03:50So I'm not, like I said, re-watching it last night, I mean, you try to get points,
03:57you try to get a little momentum on the board before, you know, before the game.
04:00And your defense had done a good job.
04:02Now, again, you'd held him to a field goal before that.
04:04And if you're shoddy, right, I mean, you know, you're at, what, the 45-yard line or 50 or whatever
04:08it was,
04:08he gets sacked on that third down play or whatever it was,
04:12and so you had some time left, and so you're thinking to yourself,
04:14all right, if we get a field goal here, we're down 13-9, and we get the ball back,
04:21so we're going to get a two-for-one, right?
04:23Again, if that field, because think about it, too.
04:26If he kicks a 65, if he nails a 65-yard field goal in Houston, all right,
04:32before the half, the sidelines are losing their mind.
04:35And you're going into the halftime.
04:37Your defense has played pretty well.
04:39Your offense has been eh, but you still got nine points,
04:42and you're getting the ball back to start the second half.
04:44Like, you're feeling nice-y going into halftime, all right?
04:48And that's, I mean, but that's the game we play, all right?
04:51I mean, you're paying this dude $7 million, okay?
04:55It's true.
04:56What's the thing that makes Brandon Aubrey special?
04:58This dude can kick 65-yarders like it's an extra point.
05:01That's what this guy, that's the weapon he is.
05:04So you know what?
05:05I don't have a problem with, look, can we get into Nick Sorensen,
05:10the special teams coach?
05:11Because these are two different conversations.
05:13We can definitely have that conversation.
05:15Because Nick Sorensen, when you re-watched the game last night,
05:17or just watched the game for everybody, obviously most of y'all did,
05:21your coverage units weren't bad yesterday, all right?
05:25You really did a good job covering kicks and punts last night.
05:30Now, your field goal unit, and maybe it's just a, maybe it is a Brandon Aubrey thing.
05:37Like, maybe here's the other thing.
05:38I get it, the whole dirty ball and all that kind of stuff.
05:40But maybe we do need to have a conversation, step back just a smidge and say,
05:45okay, you're making, you know, Brandon Aubrey is making $7 million,
05:50which he is now the highest-paid kicker.
05:53See, and again, heavy is the head that wears the crown.
05:55It's true.
05:57Cool story, bro, when you're a hometown boy, you played soccer all your life,
06:01and now you're kicking for your hometown Cowboys,
06:03and you're making $100 million a year, and you're the savior.
06:08A little bit different when now you went from being, hey, hometown hero,
06:11no, no, we need to make these field goals now, Brandon.
06:14Yep.
06:14Okay?
06:15Like, bro, you're making $7 million.
06:16You're the highest-paid kicker in NFL history.
06:18Okay?
06:19So it's a little bit different story, and I think that's maybe part of the conversation.
06:23Look, it's easy to dump on Nick Sorensen, and I get it.
06:25All right?
06:26But let's be real.
06:29Broderick Jones isn't great.
06:31Okay?
06:32And he got just straight okey-doked yesterday.
06:35Is that Nick Sorensen's fault?
06:36I don't know.
06:37Good question.
06:38All right?
06:38I mean, that's a viable question.
06:39Look, I mean, I'm down for some let's pile on Nick Sorensen as much as the next guy.
06:43But after re-watching the game last night, your special teams wasn't terrible.
06:48Kickoff return actually had some good moments.
06:50And, you know, I'm kind of getting tired of Terpen just jogging up.
06:54Like, can we actually, you know, can we put, can we hit R2 a little bit sooner?
06:57Use the speed.
06:58All right?
06:58I'm just asking.
06:59By the way, your punt return looked pretty damn good last night.
07:03All right?
07:03Brian Anger.
07:05Here's a guy that I don't think we give near enough love to for how good he's been so far
07:08through seven punts this year.
07:09So my question mark is less about, hey, let's all pile on Nick Sorensen because, yes, for
07:15as bad as he was against the Baltimore Ravens, I'm going to give him a little bit more credit
07:19for yesterday's performance.
07:21And maybe it's time to start asking just a little bit, is a little bit of this Brandon
07:27Aubrey and maybe the pressure of now being the highest paid kicker in football, because
07:33by the way, he's missed some other kicks too where blocking was fine, and maybe we just
07:38have to raise a question mark a little bit.
07:39Maybe he had a little bit of a funk.
07:41Yeah.
07:41The kickoffs, I'm glad they took a different approach to it this week.
07:46It seemed like he'd practiced something a little different that first kickoff looked
07:49and we were like, oh, well, where was that?
07:51That's what everybody went, where the F was that?
07:53He got a bounce this time.
07:54Last year.
07:54You know, whenever that happened.
07:56And the field goals, again, I'm less concerned about the whole, obviously, the special teams
08:04group needs to make sure that it doesn't get blocked, because we've had too many of these
08:09moments now where you're seeing it.
08:11But I'm less concerned about that and more concerned about the idea that, hey, I have
08:16two other options rather than kicking three.
08:19Yeah.
08:19One, throw an interception at the one-yard line.
08:23I'm a big fan of, throw it up there.
08:25Tom Brady did it for his entire career.
08:27He was beautiful at it.
08:28Not a terrible idea.
08:29Throw it down there, and maybe George Pickens catches it, and now you're on the goal line.
08:32Or you draw a P.I., which they're pretty good at doing.
08:34So there's lots of things that could happen on that.
08:36And I don't care about the interception.
08:37I don't want the field position in the opponent's favor.
08:40Exactly.
08:40If I miss or get it blocked.
08:42And then the other option is punt it.
08:44I mean, you've got a fantastic punter.
08:46Seriously.
08:46Might as well use that.
08:48So those are more strategy from the head coach's perspective.
08:51A little strategery.
08:52Hope that he'll figure that out, though.
08:54But I think he wants to use his weapon.
08:56You see, just like we discussed in the goal line, he wants to use his weapon.
09:00He wants to use Pickens and CD.
09:01Absolutely does.
09:02And he's like, I've got all these things I can throw to, so why not use them?
09:06And you're like, but isn't the easy thing to just run it in?
09:09I know it's just something that you can become part of your identity.
09:13And guess what?
09:14Whenever that happens, teams are now going to start keying in on,
09:17they are going to run this freaking football.
09:20And then you can use your weapons.
09:22Then you can set them up.
09:23That's Jake Ferguson, right?
09:25Yeah.
09:25Maybe.
09:26Maybe.
09:26Maybe if you think that he can catch it whenever called upon.
09:30We'll get a first down for you on four down.
09:31So there's that.
09:33But did this weekend, did this game change your mind from the Ravens game?
09:39Because the Ravens game was one of those you were just like, there's so many missed opportunities.
09:44But you were close against what you think is a good team.
09:47And then this week you were like, they're not a good team, but they can beat you.
09:51And you let them hang around throughout the entirety of the game, which you shouldn't have.
09:56But your defense is what it is.
09:58To use a Fred phrase, it is what it is.
10:01Let's be real about it.
10:02And they were able to get the plays they needed to get the win and walk out of that building
10:092-2 now.
10:11I don't know that it changed my mind.
10:13I think we all, I mean, for me, I've always thought this was a, you had a great offense
10:18and you had a defense that was going to get better.
10:21And that you are going to need to lean on this offense for the first five, six, seven weeks of
10:25the season
10:26while the defense caught up.
10:27But what changed for me last night, or it didn't really change my mind,
10:31but what it did was it gave me a warmer fuzzy, so to speak,
10:37is I was concerned after last week that Brian Schottenheimer was his dad.
10:42And what I mean by that is that...
10:44Cusses like he did in the Eminem song.
10:46Well, you know, he is cursing at your players worse than Marty Schottenheimer.
10:49I appreciate you referencing that.
10:51A lot of these young kids have no idea what the hell we're talking about right now.
10:54They'll figure it out.
10:55They'll figure it out.
10:56It's funny, though, my son actually referenced that yesterday while we were on our way to the game.
11:00The conservative nature of it all?
11:02Well, the thing about Schottenheimer, the elder Schottenheimer, may he rest in peace,
11:07was that you didn't worry about his teams for the first three quarters,
11:11but he always found a way to pucker up at the end.
11:15Or he made questionable coaching decisions that were more about,
11:18I'm coaching not to lose and coaching rather to win.
11:21And you saw that clearly on display last Sunday in Rio.
11:24And so that was my concern because, you know, the thing was that you can win a lot of regular
11:29season games doing that,
11:30but you can't win the big one coaching or playing like that.
11:34And so you saw that yesterday with Shottie was where, okay, yes, it's one thing to say it in a
11:40press conference.
11:41That'll never happen again.
11:42That'll never happen again.
11:42But you kind of saw it yesterday, like, okay, you know what?
11:46We're going to go down and we're going to be aggressive and we're going to make sure that we win
11:50this football game.
11:52And that's exactly, because you should have beaten the Texans yesterday, right?
11:55Like, you were a better football team than Texas.
11:57All intents and purposes, this team should theoretically be no worse than 3-1, damn near 4-0.
12:03You've played well enough to be 4-0 through the first four weeks of the season.
12:06Yeah.
12:06Okay, like, let's mince no words about that.
12:09Offensively, I agree.
12:10Offensively, 1,000%.
12:11Like, you may have the best offense in the National Football League right now.
12:15And really, you've had moments where you've had it kind of, I mean, what, 37, 31, and 34 in three
12:21straight weeks of football right now.
12:24But again, what changed for me was I have more, I'm starting to believe more and have faith in Shottie,
12:31the coach,
12:32because, like, offensively, the team can do whatever it wants.
12:35Defensively, I think, is going to continue to get better.
12:36Your path rush does need to continue to improve, because I think for as much as we talk about the
12:40secondary,
12:41there were still a lot of times where he had a lot of time to throw.
12:43But I will say this.
12:45I will say this.
12:46There was a couple third downs yesterday.
12:49Did I see a blitz get called by Parker?
12:51Did I see pressure get called?
12:53Like, look, man, I get that you're a Fangio guy, all right?
12:58Flores and Spagnuolo, those defenses are balling right now.
13:02Well, maybe not the Chiefs defense.
13:03But at the very least, you know what you're going to get with those two defenses,
13:05and you're going to get pressure.
13:06It's okay to blitz, CP.
13:08Okay?
13:09Like, I get that's your boy, and he doesn't believe in that.
13:11It's okay to differentiate sometimes.
13:13He was terrified of it because you didn't have a moment.
13:17Or you didn't have a porter.
13:19He was terrified of yesterday.
13:21Yeah, but you got to roll the dice sometimes.
13:23Yesterday, I agree with you.
13:24I agree with you.
13:24But yesterday, there's a reason on third downs when Nico Collins is crossing across the field,
13:29and he's got hands on his hips.
13:31Yeah.
13:32And Stroud's just like, I'm not even looking your way.
13:36Now, where's the rest of the field?
13:38Because you're locked up.
13:40And so now he turns away, and the blitz is coming at him.
13:43And everything changed when Porter got added to this team for what Christian Parker's faith in his defense is.
13:50No, it absolutely did.
13:51I mean, look, if that's what it's going to take to bring more pressure, I mean, you'll see more of
13:55those.
13:56You have to.
13:56I mean, you have to.
13:58Look, it's 2026 in the National Football League, all right?
14:01Unfortunately, right now, unlike the Texans, who had no problem getting there with four yesterday on several occasions,
14:06right now you don't have that luxury of just getting there with four.
14:09Now, look, has Quinton looked like a totally different person?
14:12Well, let's put it this way.
14:13Has he looked like the guy that you traded for a year ago these last two games?
14:17100%.
14:18Yes.
14:18I thought Kenny Clark started to look better.
14:19I thought Rashawn Gary showed flashes.
14:22I mean, look, Rashawn Gary had his best game as a Cowboy yesterday.
14:25Okay.
14:25Hands down, all right?
14:26Which is not saying much, all right?
14:28Let's be real about that.
14:30Ezraku is still on a milk carton, all right?
14:32Von Miller, I love you, CA, but I'm sorry.
14:34I still don't see – Von Miller's still on a milk carton, all right?
14:38So, you know, there's still question marks about this pass rush that, you know, are going to have to be
14:44figured out
14:44because, unfortunately, there's no more – I don't know if there's any more moves that you can make.
14:48Wait.
14:49Do you think that's a fair question to Steven today?
14:51What?
14:51Can you go out and make another move?
14:52Do you think the last thing missing from this defense is an elite pass rusher?
14:57I mean, you and I know that.
14:58That's a fair question.
14:59I mean, dude, if this team goes out and gets a pass rusher, number one, are we playing with Monopoly
15:05money?
15:05And two, did we just go full Madden?
15:07Did we go full – did this team go full Madden?
15:11If you've ever seen Tropic Thunder, you know what my boy Lazarus said.
15:17Did we just go full Madden?
15:18Because you never go full Madden when you're playing, you know, or do you go full Madden?
15:22You know what?
15:23I'm always about it.
15:24Always go full Madden.
15:26If you want to go full Madden and just say, we're trading everything, we're going to put a fantasy team
15:31together,
15:31I got many undefeated seasons playing Madden doing it that way.
15:35I'll put it this way.
15:36If you go full Madden, it's Super Bowl or bust.
15:40Period.
15:40End of story.
15:41I said that before the season started.
15:42Oh, it's the same old Cowboys.
15:44Let me tell you right now, if you go out and get a pass rusher, because I don't think you're
15:46going to get Max Crosby.
15:47All right, the Raiders are for real.
15:49That's a legitimate football team over there in Las Vegas.
15:52All right?
15:53That ship has sailed.
15:54But I'm sure there's somebody else out there.
15:56I don't have any names off the top of my head that we can think about.
15:58I'm sure we can get some.
15:59Sweat over in Arizona.
16:00Yeah.
16:02That team's cooked.
16:03Hell, if I'm them, I might go ahead and go fire sale if I'm them.
16:05But if you go full Madden and decide, let's go get a pass rusher, because you still do have a
16:10couple first-round picks left,
16:12then, yeah, it's Super Bowl or bust.
16:14Bier.
16:14Well, let's go.