00:00There it is, Babe Laufenberg. Good afternoon, sir.
00:02Good afternoon. Here's a good story for you right off the bat. You want one?
00:07Yeah, absolutely.
00:08Dallas Goddard, the tight end for Philadelphia, you know, when they drafted him,
00:14the fans here started a GoFundMe page to have him change his name
00:20because they didn't want to be cheering for a guy named Dallas.
00:23Oh, my gosh.
00:25Good story.
00:26That's the level of commitment you've got to love, though, right, Babe?
00:30Isn't it? But he didn't change his name.
00:33You know Joe Theismann?
00:35You know, his family name is Theismann.
00:39And they changed it.
00:41He changed it at Notre Dame so they could have the Theismann for Heismann campaign.
00:46Smart.
00:47That makes sense.
00:48Yeah, Dallas Goddard from South Dakota, though.
00:50They don't change their name up there for anything.
00:53But it feels like he'd have a better shot changing her name than getting them to change it to the
00:57Heismann Award.
00:59Like that.
01:00That felt not very likely.
01:03All right.
01:03I know we got a lot to get to, but one of the first things I wanted to ask you,
01:07especially because you can give us unique insight to this, as a former quarterback,
01:12how do you get right against the Blitz?
01:15Like, what are all the levels of people that take responsibility for helping fix that?
01:20Because obviously the Cowboys have struggled with that the last couple of weeks.
01:24Yeah, and it's a good question.
01:26And so much goes into that.
01:28Because, you know, you see these teams play seven up.
01:32Seven guys are up on the line of scrimmage.
01:34You don't know which five are coming.
01:37Now, you can't bring seven because you've got to cover five.
01:39I always say it's a counting game, right?
01:41There's 11 guys on defense.
01:42They've got to cover five eligible receivers.
01:44So really the most you can bring is six.
01:46And that's your zero blitz.
01:48Anyway, there's seven guys up there.
01:50We saw it with Tampa.
01:51Tampa does it a ton.
01:53Green Bay did it last week.
01:55So you just make a call, and then you've got to live with it.
01:58Because you cannot predict which side they're coming from or where they're going to drop.
02:02And they'll play seven guys up and then rush three, as we know, right?
02:07Four guys go flying out of that seven-up look.
02:11So you've just got to live with it.
02:13Your rules have to hold up.
02:14So in the most simplistic form, there's seven guys up there, and I send my protection right.
02:21I send my center to the right and the back to the right.
02:23I know I can pick up four now from that side.
02:26Now I have to know as a quarterback and the receiver out there to that left side, I've got to
02:32know if they come from the left side.
02:34We only have two guys over there blocking.
02:36Right.
02:36So I have to run the break off.
02:39The quarterback has to get rid of the ball.
02:41We have something built in.
02:42The key is you never want to be hot on both sides.
02:46You can't drop back and say, okay, are they coming from the right?
02:50And then look over, are they coming from the left?
02:52So you want one side that's firm.
02:55And you just live with your call, and you deal with the other side.
03:00But everybody has to be on the same page, receiver, quarterback, all that.
03:03And God love Mickey, but I heard him last week talking to you guys about the receivers have to know
03:09to break their routes, you know, to shorten up their route.
03:11And that's the last thing you want to do.
03:13If I have a 12-yard out, and I'm on the right side, and they come, and I say, oh,
03:18well, I better just make this, run this at eight, quarterback's not going to be ready to throw the ball.
03:23Okay, he's going to be late with the ball, and then the quarterback turns into a defensive back because he's
03:28going to have to tackle the DB who's running up the sideline now in front of the bench as he's
03:33going for a pick six.
03:34So you do not shorten your route unless you are the blitz breakoff, unless you are the guy to the
03:40side of the blitz where we know if they come from left side, we can't block them.
03:46I've got to run just a quick slant or whatever.
03:49You've got that built in.
03:51And it's not like that receiver gets an option of what to do.
03:55A quarterback or receiver have to know exactly where he's going.
03:58Babe, do – and you were just talking about some of the slide protections you have up front that Dak
04:03will call there.
04:04Have teams kind of picked up on, well, we know he does – they do this when we have these
04:10alignments, so this is going to actually help us because we have that information and we've figured them out?
04:17Yes and no.
04:18So, I mean, every team looks at the other team and you try to break down the pass protections, but,
04:23you know, you have a bunch of different pass protections.
04:26It's not like – you know, you see many times, right, the back, let's say, you're in shotgun, the back
04:30is set to the left of the quarterback.
04:33On the snap of the ball, he runs across and goes and picks up to the right.
04:37Correct?
04:38Yeah.
04:38So, it's not like every time he's on the left, okay, he's going to go left and they're going to
04:42be protected on this side.
04:44So, there's so many different protections.
04:46The other key in all that blitz stuff is you've got to – MDM, most dangerous man.
04:51You've got to pick up the guy coming inside, whether that's between the center of the guard, the guard tackle,
04:56and you let the guy on the outside free if you can't block them all.
05:03But you have that inside runner, which we've seen time and again, where that inside guy – and Dak's got
05:08no chance for the guy coming up the middle.
05:09The guy on the outside has the farthest to get to the quarterback, so, therefore, you have the most time
05:15as a QB to get rid of the football.
05:19But when that guy – and we've seen it, you know, when he comes up between the center guard, quarterback
05:23has no chance.
05:24And we've seen that just too many times for my taste in the last couple games.
05:31Now, we have talked a whole lot about the running game time and time and time again.
05:38What running game?
05:38What running game?
05:39Well –
05:40Where is it?
05:41Yeah.
05:41Yeah.
05:42Where is it?
05:43And I realize, like, I get it.
05:45You've got to take what the defense gives you.
05:47I understand all of that.
05:49Is the idea of beating Javante Williams early and often foolish because the defense might be loaded against it or
05:56because you have so much skill at the wide receiver position?
05:58What do you think?
06:00Because I know the passing game is outstanding, or it has been, but it feels like you've got to have
06:05some semblance of running game.
06:07Yeah.
06:08Yeah, and they know that, and they have – you know, they fell behind, obviously, the Green Bay.
06:13It's 17-0 at the half.
06:14It becomes a passing game in the second half.
06:17Does it need to be, though?
06:20Maybe not the first drive.
06:21I'm always a believer that when you get the ball that first time, stick to your game plan, do what
06:26you want.
06:27In that situation, make it a 10-point game, not a game's back on.
06:31Yeah.
06:31So, yes, you can run it.
06:32Now, I'll say this.
06:35Anyone out there who wants to be a play caller, right, I want to run the ball.
06:40We all want to run the ball.
06:43If I'm sitting there and I make a yard or a loss of yards, and that hat, you know, first
06:48down, and now I'm second and nine.
06:50Now I'm second and 10.
06:52You do that a few times, and you say, hey, screw that.
06:56I don't like being second and 10.
06:58So, you do have to have, I don't want to say commitment to the running game, but if you're sitting
07:05there, run on first down, run on second down, and now we've got third and eight, that's a tough deal
07:09for the play caller.
07:11But I do think at some point, you have to try to run the football.
07:16The other part of that is it's not just running the ball.
07:19It's when you drop back 54 times like Dak did against Green Bay, you're just inviting.
07:25You're inviting blitzes.
07:27Your offensive line is going to have a hell of a time holding up when the other team just pins
07:31their ears back and says, you know, I'm going to go get the quarterback if there's no threat of the
07:36running game.
07:37Now, again, scores can sometimes be prohibitive where you say, okay, we've got to get going here.
07:42We can't afford a nine-minute drive, right?
07:45We've got to score here in two minutes to try to get the ball back.
07:47So, it's been difficult from that standpoint.
07:50The other part is, honestly, your best players are in the passing game, right?
07:53Dak, George, Pickens, CD.
07:57Those are your best players.
07:59So, conversely, while you want to run the ball, you also want to get the ball in the hands of
08:03your best players.
08:04And those guys are the two guys on the outside.
08:07How, then, or do you see Philadelphia attacking this Cowboys unit tonight?
08:13You know, it's a good question because Philly, you know, you think of them as that great defense, and they
08:18haven't been this year.
08:19And a big part of it, they haven't had the pressure on the quarterback that they've had in years past.
08:25When you look at Philadelphia and Vic Fangio and remember the Super Bowl, they literally did not blitz Patrick Mahone
08:32one time.
08:33They never came with more than four guys because they could get pressure with their front four and then go
08:39back and, you know, cover in the secondary with seven guys.
08:42They're not getting the pressure this year.
08:44They've got eight sacks.
08:45They're one of the lowest pressure rate teams in the NFL.
08:49So, while Vic Fangio, defensive coordinator, is not a big blitz guy, I don't know if he just says, you
08:57know, we can't hold up in the secondary.
09:00Now, they've got a couple of great players, two all pros back there in Cooper Dejean and Quinion Mitchell.
09:04But he could go out of character, especially seeing how successful both Tampa Bay and Green Bay were with the
09:13blitz the last couple of weeks.
09:15He could go out of character and come after Dak a little more than we're used to seeing Vic Fangio
09:20do.
09:21Excellent stuff.
09:22As usual, we're looking forward to hearing you on the call tonight, and hopefully you help us figure out how
09:28to get a victory.
09:30I will work on that.
09:31That's my guy right there.
09:32Thank you very much.
09:33We'll be listening.
09:33Thank you, guys.
