00:00Tommy, give us a little preview towards Arizona,
00:04and can the Cowboys finally stop this misery of four straight losses
00:08and one W in their last nine?
00:11Well, you would certainly hope so, but you never know anymore.
00:15And I think this game, talking about that trade,
00:19now all of a sudden becomes that much more important.
00:21And every game is important the rest of the way,
00:23but the Cowboys are going to need to win the NFC East
00:26because this is a loaded NFC,
00:28and teams are loading up to try and get in this hunt for the playoffs.
00:32And there are going to be some pretty stacked teams in the wild card spots.
00:35So this only becomes more important, I think, for Dallas to win the NFC East.
00:39I think the current playoff picture has all three of the NFC North teams in it,
00:43or all four of them in it.
00:45So it becomes that more important.
00:47And that starts with a Cardinals team that's really had their number eight of the last nine.
00:50They haven't lost at AT&T Stadium since they've opened it.
00:55And, you know, this is a high-volume passing offense.
00:58Jacoby Brissett leads the NFL in pass attempts,
01:01and Trey McBride, I think, leads the league in receptions.
01:04So those are the two names that you need to know offensively.
01:07If they're able to stop McBride, I think you have a path to winning.
01:12But you've also got to factor in if Jeremiah Love is able to come back.
01:15Practiced yesterday a little bit, but if he can get to the outside,
01:19they love running the ball outside, that's going to be a problem
01:22because he can really turn upfield and go.
01:25So these Cowboys' edge defenders are going to have to do a better job of setting the edge
01:28than they've done in weeks past.
01:30And then as far as the Cowboys' offense, they've had some struggles at corner.
01:35So I think this is another game where you think George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb
01:38can have a big day.
01:39Their defensive line and linebackers haven't played bad,
01:42but given how the Cowboys' front five played last week,
01:45this would be another unit that they can move around
01:48and allow Javante Williams to run through.
01:50And really the star on defense for them is Buda Baker.
01:54They do so much with him, moving him around.
01:57He leads the team in sacks, but he's a good cover player.
02:00He can come downhill and tackle.
02:01And they're going to do a little bit more of the Jonathan Gannon,
02:08Todd Bowles type of stuff in terms of looks to the line of scrimmage
02:11where they'll show you seven or six guys and then drop back a couple into covers.
02:17And that kind of confused.
02:18I did it backwards so Bobby wouldn't have to do the six, seven there.
02:25But they will try to confuse you a little bit at the line of scrimmage too.
02:29And they don't do it as much, I think, as those other guys do.
02:31But it'll still be something that they'll try to take advantage of
02:36with this Cowboys' offense given how they struggled with it a couple of weeks ago.
02:39So, Tommy, you know, when they came out of that game against Philadelphia
02:43feeling really good about the run game, obviously, and feeling like,
02:45all right, this is with the offensive line unit back intact.
02:48We can move people.
02:49We had a lot of success doing this.
02:50Jerry's saying on Tuesday, want to be a run first team out of it.
02:54And Arizona defensively is not great this year in either fashion.
02:57But you do mention their secondary is banged up.
03:00And Arizona has gotten thrown on pretty heavily this season.
03:04Is this a test of what that commitment really is like to go into this game
03:09and just say potentially, hey, let's get this run game going
03:12despite what we know about this Arizona secondary?
03:16Yeah, I think that's fair to say.
03:18I think it would be – I still expect there to be a semblance of balance
03:23because they also just haven't been elite against the run.
03:25So, I don't foresee there being any sort of, you know, setbacks or stepbacks
03:31in being able to run the ball.
03:32Are they going to run for 200 yards?
03:33Maybe not.
03:33That's not something that you should expect, you know, every game.
03:36But I would still expect them to have some success running the football.
03:40I think you might see some more explosive plays because of the fact
03:43that they've been banged up in the secondary.
03:45We saw a couple of them in this last game.
03:47But I think you can still be a run first team like Jerry was talking about
03:52with you guys and Brian Schotthimer was talking about with us the other day.
03:55And still have, you know, more passing yardage or deep passing plays
04:00than you do running plays.
04:02You can have success with both.
04:03There's still a way to be balanced even if it doesn't necessarily match up
04:07like 200 yards in each like it did last week on the box score.
04:10So, I still expect this team to try and run the ball
04:13and then they'll set up their passing game because, like you mentioned,
04:16they're banged up in the secondary.
04:17And you've got the playmakers that can take advantage of that.
04:20Do you look at this as a game that you will style point?
04:28Style point as in you need to win it big or you need to – what do you mean by
04:33that?
04:33Yeah.
04:33Like you're going to – this can't be even 28 to 17.
04:37You're going to style point this thing.
04:41Not necessarily.
04:42I think if you come out of this with a win, that's all that's important.
04:46And, you know, the defense has been fairly unpredictable at times.
04:51You kind of don't really know what you're going to get.
04:54The last couple of games it's been, you know,
04:57five out of the seven games this year they've given up 14 or more points in the first half.
05:02So, you know, you don't know how this defense is going to start.
05:06And they've improved the last couple of weeks in the second half.
05:08Well, is that going to be what we continue to get?
05:10Because if you get – if you spot them 14 points in the, you know, in the first quarter,
05:14then you're probably going into halftime with at least a pretty close ball game.
05:18And if they settle in, that's maybe where you have some time to separate.
05:22So I don't have any, you know, requirement or anything like that.
05:27Like I don't need to see them, you know, win by 21 points.
05:31I think you just want to see them play sound football and win the game.
05:35If you're talking about, okay, this team is taking steps in the right direction.
05:38It wasn't just a, you know, flash in the pan or beating up on an injured team.
05:43You know, again, they're banged up in the secondary,
05:45but they should have, you know, some of their big offensive pieces still in this game.
05:48So it's an opportunity for the defense against a, you know, good but not great offensive unit, I would say.
05:55Tommy Ars, DallasCowboys.com, joining us here on 105 Through the Fan.
05:59Tommy, this is something that the more as the week has gone on
06:03and we start looking at this cornerback rotation and I start seeing the tape back
06:07and I say, all right, Kobe Durant in there looked effective
06:10and Deron Bland has had his struggles here but has played better, I think,
06:14since, you know, Joey Porter got here.
06:16How do you think they're going to approach this sort of rotation over the next few weeks?
06:20Are they trying to figure it out or do you think they're saying,
06:22hey, we might be looking at an instance of Durant's going in the slot
06:25and Downs is going to play more safety until at least maybe Jalen Thompson gets back
06:29or is it going to be a case of, all right, Durant's going to play some outside,
06:32we're going to keep nickel for Downs and Bland is going to start playing a little bit less.
06:35How do you see them breaking out the secondary grouping
06:39and what it means specifically, I guess, for Caleb Downs?
06:43I think with Downs, you're going to see them closer to the line when everybody's healthy.
06:47That's what they've said from the beginning.
06:49That's what they've done when everybody's been healthy is play them in the nickel
06:52and play them close to the line of scrimmage
06:54because that's where they feel like he's most effective.
06:56I think that it might be easier to do that if P.J. Locke is able to come back this
07:01week.
07:01He was able to practice fully yesterday and it was only a walkthrough for the Cowboys yesterday.
07:05But nonetheless, if he's able to come back and handle that other safety spot alongside Malik Hooker,
07:11then I think that gives the Cowboys enough to maybe give him,
07:15I'm not saying he's going to be completely eliminated from playing at safety,
07:18but you might not see as much rotation back there as you've seen in the last couple of weeks
07:22as they've been banged up there.
07:24And then, of course, when Jalen Thompson comes back, that changes too.
07:27But based on what they've shown when everybody's been healthy,
07:31it's Downs is playing nickel.
07:32He's close to the line of scrimmage.
07:34He's helping you in the run game.
07:35He's blitzing at times.
07:36And I think that's where they want to play him.
07:38And then outside of that, I think you're looking at Joey Porter and Deron Bland
07:42being your starting corners opposite of that.
07:43I think they've really liked how Deron Bland has played the last two weeks.
07:47They feel like he's had his best two games of the season the last two weeks.
07:51And part of that is Porter being on the other side.
07:54So that's how I think this shakes up.
07:57What's your pick?
08:02I picked against him last week because I was like,
08:04all right, I got to see it first that they can beat a team that should be beat.
08:08And they did their job.
08:10And I picked him last year in the Cardinals game, and I was dead wrong in that.
08:16But I think the new coaching staff and the banged-up secondary allowing your playmakers
08:22to get going here.
08:23You're getting a little bit healthier on defense.
08:26I think this is one that the Cowboys should win, but I don't think it's going to be a blowout
08:31game.
08:31I think this will still be maybe a one-possession game or even like a 10-point win.
08:36I don't see them winning by 28 points because that's another thing.
08:40They've got to show me that they can do that.
08:43And I know they did it by, I think it was, what, 17 or 16 last week.
08:47But I need to see it consistently before I can continue to predict that that's going to happen.
