00:00is we bring to you Dallas Cowboys insider Mickey Spagnuolo. Good morning, sir.
00:06Good morning. What's going on, boys?
00:08Do you think that the heroics last night by the Rays could turn the tide,
00:13or did they just delay the inevitable with Mizorowski on the bump tonight?
00:19I would think it's delaying the inevitable.
00:22I mean, what did it have to go to finally win one? 12-in?
00:2612, yeah.
00:27And they had to come from behind, and they're half of the inning.
00:31Do you know, Mickey, that the Tampa Bay Rays are the 26th team to fall behind 3-0 in the
00:38World Series?
00:40None of them have ever even made it to Game 6.
00:45So I'm sticking with my prediction.
00:48Yeah, probably fair right there.
00:51Who is the player that you think Demarcato was released for?
00:58Because I assume it's somebody bouncing back off the IR.
01:03Very well could be, or they saw somebody on the waiver wire that they want to put a claim into.
01:13I think Locke was really close because they started his 21-day window last week.
01:23So I would think either he or Leofile, they started his window, too.
01:31So maybe one of those two guys, I would think, would be the logical choice if it's from within.
01:40Strictly from a run-of-play and not special teams perspective, it would be a bigger deal for the Cowboys
01:48to get Locke back, yes?
01:50Yes, I think getting more help in the secondary, especially at the safety position, I think would be beneficial.
02:01Although Leofile, with his special teams help, I think would be beneficial.
02:10So, yeah, one of those two guys would serve.
02:14You know, and Locke was a pretty good special teams guy, too.
02:17So it'll be interesting to see how it works out in practice this week.
02:24With Locke coming back, how much different would Caleb Downs' role look,
02:30or would it look very similar to what we've seen the last week or two?
02:34Yeah, I think it would be similar.
02:38You want him on the field, and was it another game, 100% snaps?
02:44I believe so, yeah.
02:45Yeah, so he's not going anywhere.
02:47They're not going to minimize anything he does, but they would have the ability to maybe continue to move him
02:56around
02:56into different spots in different situations.
03:01And the same with Locke.
03:05You know, he and Durant, they're very versatile.
03:09So I think that helps out on the back end.
03:13Because, you know, if you see, Hooker didn't play as many snaps as normal at the deep safety spot.
03:21So they've got to move that around, too.
03:23And, you know, well, good.
03:25This defense hasn't arrived by any means just because they pitched the shutout in the fourth quarter.
03:32They still gave up 21 points in, what, two quarters and one possession.
03:39So still got a ways to go.
03:42And the most maddening part about, like, putting aside the Eagles were tied for fourth fewest points in the NFL
03:47at 17.7 points per game.
03:49The thing that I'm sure drives us all crazy is not only the number of defensive penalties,
03:57but the number of defensive penalties against the Eagles that immediately went and made it a first down.
04:03That is something that nobody wants.
04:06But that is something that a defense like this most certainly cannot succeed with.
04:11Yeah, and especially when the penalties, like neutral zone infractions, those are the ones that are probably more disgusting than
04:22anything else.
04:24You know, I understand what Williams was trying to do on the goal line when he dove over to try
04:30to stop the push-push.
04:33But, again, there were other ones.
04:35You know, and if it's defensive holding, you know, the reason you get those, the reason you get pass interference
04:45is you're usually getting beat and you're grabbing on for dear life, right?
04:50So there's kind of a tradeoff there because you never know what you're preventing than what you're accepting, either a
04:59five-yard penalty or maybe it's worth 15, 20 yards.
05:02But, again, now the second half, did you see what happened with the penalties?
05:08They went away?
05:10They had won, and it was a delay of game on offense.
05:16Oh, yeah, there you go.
05:18So it did get cleaned up the second half.
05:21But, again, when you're dominating in one phase or the other, chances are you're not committing penalties.
05:28Right.
05:28Yeah, that's true.
05:29Mickey, I have a question for you regarding one Troy Aikman.
05:34Do you think – and we don't typically dive in on these topics too much,
05:38but do you think that he and Jerry could run a football team with the same ideology?
05:44Oh, I can't imagine that they would be at opposite ends of the poll if they were together.
05:54Yeah, I think so.
05:56I don't – I mean, Troy understands personnel, right?
06:02And I think that's what – an advantage of having a guy like Tom Brady looking at personnel for you.
06:13It's not like they're going to go in there and start swinging trades or, you know, acting like the GM
06:19or anything like that.
06:21But they've got guys that I think do a pretty good job of that.
06:25I think Will McClay is pretty talented, right, and pretty good at what he does.
06:31So, again, you know, it's sort of like the Mike Pettin thing.
06:36You get another – if you did something, you get another set of eyes to look at things, to take
06:42advice from.
06:43And, you know, and Jerry's good at taking advice, and a lot of times it's the last person's advice.
06:50He's the one he sides with, right?
06:52So, yeah, I see no harm in it, and I know everybody wants to make a big deal out of
07:00it, but we'll see.
07:03I mean, Troy's got a pretty good job right now, right?
07:06Yeah, despite what Joe Buck wants, you know what I'm saying?
07:11Now, go ahead.
07:13No, that's all right.
07:14Go ahead.
07:14Another thing that people are making a big deal out of, you're there.
07:18You can let us know.
07:19Did you feel like Schottenheimer's demeanor either after the game or in the presser today was particularly different?
07:26Yeah, absolutely, and rightfully so.
07:31He took it pretty much on the chin on Sunday and Monday in the papers, right?
07:36Right.
07:38And so, in my history of dealing with stuff like that, if I have my say, right, well, then the
07:51player or the coach has the right to have their say.
07:55Now, he didn't say it, but he said it in his demeanor after the game that he wasn't really happy
08:01with the criticism he received, right?
08:04Yeah.
08:04And that's his right.
08:06I thought he did a better job than I would have done, because I would have lashed out.
08:12Oh, what would that have sounded like?
08:13I know Bill Parcells would have, right?
08:18I know Jimmy Johnson would have, but this is a different day and age, right?
08:23And it's like, you don't need to make a situation worse by doubling down and acting like, you know, oh,
08:32it bothered me.
08:33I could tell you a story.
08:36The first time I ever met Bill Parcells, and I was talking about this just the other day.
08:40I got sent to the Giants before a Cowboys-Giants game, I want to say maybe 85, 86, somewhere in
08:52there.
08:52And Parcells was doing his afternoon meeting with the New York, New Jersey media.
09:02And they had this long, rectangular table, and Bill walks in, first time I ever met him, and he sits
09:10at the head of the table like it was the Godfather, right?
09:13Smart, yeah.
09:16And he didn't even wait for a question.
09:20He looks at one of the writers, and I think it was Vinny, and he goes, Vinny, and it was
09:27like, what da-da-da did you write today?
09:31He goes, you got it all wrong.
09:33He goes, why didn't you ask me?
09:35I would have given you the right information, but no, you just went on your own and did it all
09:39wrong.
09:40And I'm sitting there going, ooh, are you kidding me?
09:44I'm dealing with Tom Landry, who's so polite all the time, and this is Bill Parcells.
09:50So, again, if you want to be short what your answer is, be short what your answer is, because the
09:56person deserved it,
09:57or at least deserved hearing from him on what he thought of what was written and what the headlines were
10:05in the papers in those two days.
10:07That kind of brings me back, like, Parcells did that a lot, too, where he'd sit down and just start
10:11the press conference himself.
10:13I remember that.
10:14He was like, I got control of this.
10:16But, Mickey, I was with you one day.
10:18We were watching a Desperados practice, and Bill was out there, and he mentioned, you said to him, you were
10:24like, hey, what are you doing out here?
10:26And he said, I drafted this guy, and they were trying out a guy for the Desperados.
10:29And I wrote that in my notes, and he goes, don't print that.
10:32And I put it in my pocket, and then I went and looked, and I looked through the New England
10:38Patriots media guide from the year that that dude was drafted,
10:42and I just mentioned in my story that he was drafted by the Patriots.
10:47And Bill Parcells caught me in the hallway and said, hey, I thought I told you not to print that.
10:52And I said, well, I found it in the media guide.
10:55It was out there for public record.
10:57And he goes, well, I can't hate you for doing your job, and walked off.
11:00And I was like, okay, got to have some balance and fairness in the whole conversation.
11:06Well, I hope that for Schottenheimer, that he does have a little bit of an edge about him for the
11:11remainder of this season.
11:13Maybe not an anger towards the media all the time, but an edge that this team can follow.
11:19Yeah, and let's not lump everybody together in the media, right?
11:24I think it was certain people he was aiming that at.
11:28Sean and RJ, that makes sense.
11:30Yeah, that's true.
11:33How effective, we went back and looked, but how effective was that trio in the middle of your offensive line
11:39at just keeping their big two defensive tackles out of this game?
11:44Yeah, and I don't think they got enough credit for that.
11:49Because, you know, what I see, and I just answered a mailbag from someone, and they said, you know,
11:56what do we make of that victory because the Eagles were shorthanded?
12:01And I'm going, well, yeah, they didn't have their quarterback in there,
12:06and they didn't have a healthy running back in there or their wide receiver,
12:10but that had nothing to do with their defensive front.
12:13Yeah.
12:14They're still judged as pretty darn good, right?
12:18And I thought those guys, especially, and think about this, this was Tyler Smith's only
12:25second game back after missing his four games on injured reserve, right?
12:30And I think it made a huge difference that he had a game under his belt,
12:36but I thought those three guys were really effective, not only just in the run game,
12:42but you didn't see many free guys on blitzes coming up the middle.
12:48And I thought they did a good job of discouraging the Eagles from blitzing as they started to,
12:55and then it was like, well, we're kind of getting beat on those things.
12:59We're probably going to back off.
13:01And then they did a wonderful job in run blocking, and especially both guards along with BB.
13:09I thought the whole offensive line had one of their better games so far this season.
13:15Appreciate the time.
13:16As always, good sir, hopefully we have even more baseball talk for you tomorrow when we talk with you.
13:23Well, I'm just glad you didn't bring up the Stars, because I was there last night, and that was just
13:28awful.
13:28It was tough.
13:29It was tough.
13:30The Stars literally said, this is our worst game of the season, and it is hard to argue against that.
13:36It might be the worst game I've seen them play in person in quite some time.
13:42Thanks a lot, Connor Hellebuck.
13:44All right, thank you very much, good sir.
13:45We'll catch you tomorrow.
13:47All right, see you guys.
