00:01From news and notes to the coaches and players for America's team, let us go Inside the Star on 105
00:08.3 The Fan.
00:13It's stuck.
00:14Throat's still banged up.
00:16Yeah, my throat is still just ravaged, man.
00:19It's stuck. What's stuck in there? Never mind.
00:22Just the vocal cords. They stick. They get stuck there.
00:25Steven Jones and Brian Schottenheimer talking yesterday after the thrilling win in the armpit.
00:30RJ Choppy is back. Give us the initial thoughts on the win.
00:35Well, most importantly, road deck came to play.
00:40Every team goes as their quarterback goes.
00:44Did you guys have them at 2-2 after four games? I know I did.
00:48But I had them losing to Houston.
00:50Winning the first two, losing the second two.
00:51Yeah, I think it was that.
00:52So it obviously didn't happen that way, and it never does. It's the NFL.
00:57But, you know, one of the things I'm going to take from this, I think, the most is that, you
01:03know,
01:03Dak scores 34 points away from home.
01:06He was over 30 last week.
01:09Not a road game, but away from home.
01:12And one of his biggest career issues, especially of late, has been, like, you know,
01:17he doesn't beat teams he's totally not familiar with because he's just two games over 500 away from home
01:23and exactly 500 against non-NFC East teams.
01:29Right?
01:29So I think he needed this.
01:30He needed the double-digit comeback.
01:32He needed the road win.
01:34He needed to put up a lot of points on the road and show this offense doesn't just falter on
01:40the road.
01:40Yeah, Bobby has QB rankings every week.
01:43I can't remember who it's done by.
01:44We didn't get a chance to get to them last week.
01:46I think he was fifth?
01:47Third.
01:48Third.
01:49Nick Shook from NFL.com.
01:50And Dak Prescott is playing so well that he can't sit there and argue any of it.
01:56I don't think he's playing that well because PFF told me yesterday that Jacoby Brissett throwing three interceptions against the
02:05Giants
02:06at 166 yards on 35 attempts was a higher-graded performance this weekend than Dak Prescott.
02:12They changed again.
02:13Move on.
02:13They're spiraling at PFF headquarters this year.
02:18It's awful.
02:19They're spiraling.
02:20It's spiraling like Jacoby Brissett, the way he throws spirals.
02:24So I think that was one thing.
02:26You know, the other thing, CD Lamb was an absolute monster, obviously.
02:32I just saw JT Springer at the coffee machine, and he's shaking his head, and he's like,
02:37Oh, Choppy.
02:38He's got the most convenient days to be out.
02:41And I was like, Oh, for what?
02:42He goes, CD.
02:43CD.
02:44Choppy didn't have to sit there and admit the absolute dominance on Monday.
02:48So that was JT the next time you see him.
02:50I'm stunned he's on with the coffee machine.
02:52I know.
02:53Does he even know where his studio is?
02:56Hey, I think they finished number one in some day part.
02:58So props.
02:59Yeah, they've been good.
03:00He's listening to us all the time and watching the YouTube and everything, so don't insult JT.
03:05Yeah, the computer finished number one.
03:06The automation.
03:08That's what finished number one.
03:12But, you know, I do think that, like, you know, this game.
03:16And I told JT, I said, watch, wait until you hear where Choppy takes it.
03:19This will be a good Choppy-ism.
03:21What is it?
03:22Make your point.
03:23This is a Choppy?
03:24Okay.
03:25We have to find a way at all costs to keep these two together.
03:33Or if you're going to get rid of George Fine, just draft someone in the first round that can replace
03:36him.
03:37Not somebody else.
03:38Because that game does not happen without another receiver taking attention away.
03:45Oh, my goodness.
03:47Am I wrong?
03:49Yes.
03:50Well, no, because there's nobody else in the league that puts up 18 catches.
03:53You know, that doesn't have another top guy.
03:57No, I mean, it's happened before.
03:58Keenan Allen put up 18 a couple years ago.
04:00Keenan Allen is garbage.
04:02It's the way they, I mean.
04:06I mean, you do have to give, yes, I agree.
04:09He maybe goes 14 or 15 catches.
04:11I don't think this is like he's seven catches if George isn't there last year.
04:15Yeah, just the overall thought is, like, you know, you can't shut, you know, you can shut one down.
04:21One down, yeah.
04:21You'd think.
04:22Even though Brian Schottenheimer said our plan was to shut Nico down.
04:25That was a piss-poor execution to take the words from Schottenheimer's mouth at the press conference.
04:29But if you have just Ryan Flannoy on the other side, you'd think it's easier to go ahead and limit
04:34CD.
04:34I mean, like, did Justin Jefferson have, like, two touchdowns last year?
04:39You know, and now look, they didn't have a great quarterback situation.
04:43Jefferson doesn't go in the slot as much either.
04:46Okay, that's true.
04:47That's true.
04:48But, yeah, I just don't think that any receiver in the NFL.
04:51You want the formula of two really good wide outs, no matter what.
04:54Doesn't matter who.
04:55I want that formula.
04:57And if it's not George, it's not George.
04:58You know, if you don't want to pay George $30 million, I get it.
05:00You know, but then you're going to have to draft somebody.
05:02Because what we got out of CD is what we should get just about every week.
05:08That's a lofty.
05:09Well, until they decide they're going to start.
05:11So now if he doesn't have 17 catches, you're back to your GP's better argument.
05:15No, no, no.
05:16Well, I mean, the other teams are already telling you that because they're doubling them.
05:19So they're blanking in.
05:20You wouldn't even call him CD Lamb because you don't think it's on him alone.
05:23You would call him GP Lamb because he's nothing without George Pickens.
05:26Or CD Pickens, whatever you want to call him.
05:29Or George Lamb, you know, however you want to say it.
05:32George Lamb just sounds like an accountant.
05:34It does sound like an accountant.
05:35But, you know, I mean, look, I don't think it's a knock on a running back when you say,
05:39I got to get him an offensive lineman.
05:40Yeah, yeah.
05:40And I don't think it's – it does – CD benefits from it.
05:44There's no doubt about it.
05:46I don't think it's to the extent of, like, man, he's only putting up raw, really, really good numbers without
05:54that.
05:54I mean, 2023, he put up absurd numbers without having somebody opposite.
05:57So he said, you know, Tet caught 16.
05:59Look, if it's against the Lions, it doesn't count.
06:01That's true.
06:02If it's against that defense, it doesn't count.
06:03And then the other thing that I took for this game is, thank God.
06:09And Shottie's not perfect.
06:10No.
06:12At all.
06:12He is definitely not.
06:13Thank God we don't have a defensive head coach because that guy is a coward down there.
06:18And I don't know, did you guys talk about how cowardly and how bad of a head coach D'Amico
06:23Ryans is?
06:24No.
06:25What instance?
06:26I felt like D'Amico out-coached Shottie in a lot of instances.
06:30That's not difficult.
06:31In a 10-6 game in the second quarter on a 4th and 3 from the 20, he goes to
06:37the field goal.
06:37Congrats.
06:38You made a one-possession game, a one-possession game.
06:41Mm-hmm.
06:41All right.
06:42And there's no difference in 13-6 versus 10-6.
06:45Make it 17-6 or make the Cowboys go 80 yards.
06:49And then later on, the timeouts were inexcusable that he used at the end of the game.
06:56Because what it did was, and I know the Cowboys said, oh, didn't change your plan.
07:00Well, you don't know that.
07:02When you stop the clock and you don't force them to use their timeouts, you open up the entire playbook.
07:08You basically gave them now four opportunities to stop the clock instead of two.
07:12And I don't know, maybe you leave yourself no time to score.
07:14That's a risk you've got to take.
07:17But you've got to leave yourself on offensive timeouts there at the end.
07:21That was cowardly what he did near the end of that first half.
07:25I think there might be less time on the clock if he doesn't call the timeouts.
07:29Like, if he just lets them pick it apart and then tries to call timeouts a little closer,
07:33they probably, I mean, it doesn't matter.
07:34They lose anyway.
07:35But I think there is probably less time on the clock if he doesn't use those timeouts.
07:39Steven Jones yesterday was on, the KNC Masterpiece, as he is every Monday.
07:44We'll have Jerry tomorrow at 8.30.
07:47And this one bothered me a little bit because I was wondering to myself,
07:52are Jerry and Steven just trying to justify the contract they gave out to Brandon Aubrey
07:56as the fellas asked Steven about the special teams errors?
08:00Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, hats off to Will Anderson.
08:04And he's certainly one of the best players in the league, probably maybe the best on the defensive side of
08:09the ball.
08:09And obviously what he does is get to the passer and he also gets to the kicker.
08:15But we've got to be better than that.
08:17We've got to keep our integrity and our block lanes there.
08:21You know, he made a great play blocking it.
08:23But, you know, it's not unlike our offense.
08:26We're very comfortable with making that call.
08:30I mean, going forward on fourth down down there, we end up converting the touchdown.
08:35We think we've got the best kicker in the NFL in Brandon, and we'll try that every time.
08:40I understand it.
08:41I understand what the consequences were.
08:43You get one blocked, and that gets converted to a field goal.
08:47And then you miss the one, and they get a shorter one before the half's out.
08:51We do get the ball back.
08:52But we're comfortable with those calls.
08:54We're right there with it and for it, giving Brandon the opportunity to make those kicks.
09:01That's why we have him.
09:02That's why we pay him.
09:03And like you said, no one's going to lose sleep over it.
09:07But we think he's got as good a chance as anybody to convert a 65-yard deal goal.
09:11And should we do some things better in terms of, you know, keeping the ball from getting blocked?
09:17Yes, we have to improve there.
09:19But I did think as a whole, the special teams did a lot of good things in terms of penning
09:24them.
09:24And then we had some really good returns.
09:26So, you know, that's part of it.
09:28I know, you know, whenever something like that doesn't work out, it's going to get questioned.
09:33But we were very comfortable with the calls that were made there.
09:36I knew early on in the season when we were asking about Schottenheimer's lack of aggressiveness,
09:41the way Jerry and Steven answered it, they were like, no, we want him to be more aggressive.
09:45And he gave a great answer on that yesterday as well with K&C.
09:47I am worried that he absolutely means this, too, of, no, we're totally fine with the 65-yard attempt.
09:53We paid him $7 million.
09:54And I'm like, okay, don't justify the contract with all the decisions.
10:00Like, do the smart thing, as you sent us last night some Brandon Aubrey numbers.
10:03Yeah, since week 15 of last year, eight games since then, there have been 40 kickers to kick a field
10:10goal in the NFL.
10:11Brandon Aubrey is 39th in field goal percentage in those eight games.
10:15Second worst in the NFL.
10:17The only person who's worse is Young Way Koo, who has kicked two field goals and missed them both.
10:22So if you take out the person who kicked two field goals in a game and just put the ones
10:26who have played multiple games,
10:27Brandon Aubrey is the least accurate kicker in the NFL over the last eight games.
10:30Young Way was my kicker last year.
10:32Yeah, he's awful.
10:33You are looking good on your Brandon Aubrey point.
10:36The question is, does it just take two 62-yarders that win a game in order to, you know, justify
10:44it?
10:44But all that aside, man, it sounds like Steven was fine with it.
10:50And I don't know if Sean—and Sean Haber did not get asked about that yesterday.
10:53They all—they all, like, just have this fixation with him and this affinity for him that—
11:01He's like their meat slicer.
11:02He's great.
11:03Yeah.
11:03I'm like, give me anything.
11:05Give me a ham, a turkey.
11:07Give me a pancetta.
11:09Give me a prosciutto.
11:09Give me—I can do it.
11:11I can do it with this meat slicer.
11:13He's great.
11:13He's got a big leg.
11:15Everything like that.
11:15The problem is just—it gives them something to lean on that they shouldn't lean on.
11:21And I don't care who—that's why, to me, it's like, I'd rather not pay.
11:23Because they're paying somebody, and they've got a weapon that—and people would say, well, that's not Brandon Aubrey's fault.
11:29No, it's not.
11:29And Brandon Aubrey can go get paid somewhere else.
11:31I'm just saying that this team, when they have it, is way too comfortable going, all right, we're at the
11:3540.
11:36We can stop calling aggressively.
11:37And I hate it.
11:38Yeah.
11:39That was going to be my number one storyline of the game if they lost with Schottenheimer screwing that up,
11:43butchering that, and giving them three points.
11:45Okay, so you're saying you would have just punted?
11:48Yeah.
11:48That's fine.
11:49Your defense was playing a little better.
11:5165 is—you leave that for zero seconds of the clock.
11:54Yeah.
11:55You don't try 65 with, what was it, 40 seconds?
11:57And you made it a two-score game, and you're getting the ball first coming out of halftime.
12:03And it's like, why make it a two-score game for nothing?
12:06Like, your defense was playing okay.
12:07Maybe Houston goes down the field anyway, but I hated that, and it made me question Schottenheimer again upstairs.
12:12To me, the run—I'm sorry, the pass on second and five, I would have ran the ball there, second and
12:16five.
12:18They had a minute and a half to go-ish.
12:21You know, run the football, try to get to a third and shorter, or you get the first down there,
12:25and then get closer or just—or score.
12:28But, you know, then you get a sack, and then all of a sudden now it's—you know, you're not going
12:33to be able to run the clock down anymore to kick.
12:37Bobby, I thought Steven made it sound like Tyler Smith was a full go, and then when I listened to
12:44Schottenheimer, it sounded like the yellow light was blinking a little bit instead of Steven's green.
12:50No practice for overshone.
12:52Tyler Smith was limited yesterday.
12:53Yeah, I think that's shoddy probably gamesmanshiping a little bit more.
12:57They have all talked as if he was getting activated, he was going to be ready to go.
13:02I would imagine on a short week, too, especially, it would be nice for them to be able to have
13:05somebody just fresh walking in there on the offensive line and playing.
13:09But, yeah, Steven, I think, is talking like they're expecting him to be out there, and his practice window activated,
13:15a limited participant.
13:17I would be surprised if he's not out there ready to play on Thursday.
