- 6 minutes ago
Babe Laufenberg joined The K&C Masterpiece and discussed Schottenheimer's job security, the defensive line, trade deadline expectations, run game struggles, and more.
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00:00Babe, Laufenberg, good afternoon, sir.
00:03Good afternoon, gentlemen, and I'm going to miss Alex.
00:05I don't know if you guys will, but I will.
00:07I don't know if they're going to either.
00:08I've already processed it and moved on, babe.
00:10Yeah, we've moved on.
00:10You know, you've got to have that GM mentality.
00:13You've got to just go, go, go.
00:14Now, I have a couple of different options for you.
00:17I want to ask you about trading cards, or I have a trivia question for you.
00:25Oh, nice.
00:27Whichever way you want to go first.
00:29All right.
00:31Babe, Laufenberg, who are the only two Cowboys quarterbacks
00:35to ever beat the Colts in Indianapolis?
00:39In Indianapolis.
00:42Let's see.
00:43I was there for the Sean Lee two interception overtime of Peyton Manning
00:46ran in for a touchdown game, and I'm assuming that was Tony Romo.
00:55And gosh, the other one in Indianapolis.
00:57I couldn't tell you.
00:58I couldn't tell you.
01:00I've got it down as Troy Aikman and John Kitna as those starting quarterbacks.
01:06Oh, Kitna.
01:07John Kitna.
01:07Wow.
01:08Okay.
01:09There we go.
01:09That's a tough place for us then, huh?
01:11That is true.
01:12Now, we are at the card show, and I want to know, like, did you ever, were you excited the
01:18first time you saw yourself on a trading card?
01:21Did you ever collect them?
01:22Yeah.
01:23Oh, yeah.
01:24Well, yes, as a kid, they were big.
01:27You know, you got them in your bubble gum wrapper, and you got like five cards, and I
01:32swear, at that time, we put them, you clipped them to your bicycle.
01:36Yep.
01:36And the spokes, and it made that, and I can only imagine, and I had a bunch of cards.
01:44I mean, shoeboxes full of cards, and I wasn't a collector or anything.
01:50At that point, you really didn't collect them the way they do, obviously, what you're doing
01:54today, and I can only imagine how much money my mom threw out when she cleaned the garage
01:59out one time.
01:59You know, I was gone.
02:01I was an adult, and she said, oh, you know, and I said, oh, you didn't do that, did you?
02:06I also had every sports illustrated, kept every sports illustrated in the garage from, my
02:12first one was Denny McLean, and the mob was on the cover.
02:15Denny McLean is the last 30-game winner in Major League Baseball, won 31 games for the
02:20Detroit Tigers.
02:22So, anyway, I had every sports illustrated from that day forward also got thrown out.
02:27Babe, we don't ask you this very often, but if there is any way that you can get that
02:32sound effect into Sunday's broadcast of the card, that would just make my day, and I'd
02:38really appreciate that.
02:40Well, let's see what the score is.
02:44We may be looking for entertainment outside of the football game.
02:48And Goodson's out here trying to go, brrrr, brrrr, brrrr, you're like, yeah.
02:51You know what's really funny about that, Babe?
02:53Like, obviously, a lot of the older cards are of iconic players, but that's part of the
02:57reason that so many of those cards are so valuable, because so many kids put them in
03:01the spokes of their bikes and destroyed them.
03:04Right.
03:04I can only guess how many Sandy Koufax or Mickey Mantle cards were tore up on my bicycle.
03:11Oh.
03:12I do have a, I do, I played golf with Mickey Mantle, and he actually signed a, I've got
03:16it with the baseball that he signed, and so I do have a little Mickey Mantle shrine here
03:23in my house.
03:25Boy, it was a shame, because we played, we played in a scramble, you know, a charity
03:29event, and somebody hit their ball from the other fairway right into his thigh.
03:35Oh, no.
03:36And Mickey, Mickey was an older gentleman at this time, and I'm like, okay, who's going
03:42to come over and say, oh, did you guys see a tie list over here?
03:46I'm like, yeah, it's embedded in Mickey Mantle's thigh.
03:50We're going to, you know that ball repair tool you have?
03:53We need to take that to dig the golf ball out of Mickey Mantle's thigh.
03:58So.
04:00Man, babe, we're like, I don't know, four minutes in, but this already might be my favorite
04:05interview that we've done with you.
04:07That is insane.
04:10All right, now it's, now it is 100% that.
04:16All right, let me ask you a question that we talked about a little bit off air.
04:21Have you been on a team, like it sure does appear the Colts are, where it feels to you
04:27as a player, like the franchise has kind of given up on the season?
04:31Well, I don't know if I told this story before the Green Bay game, but, so we're playing Green
04:37Bay, I'm on the team, obviously, and I was signaling in to Troy Aikman the plays at that
04:43time.
04:43You didn't have the walkie-talkie to talk into the quarterback summit.
04:47And, anyway, first series goes by, second series goes by, third series goes by, and
04:52we're not giving the ball to Herschel Walker.
04:54Herschel Walker is the only good player on the team.
04:56And I'm like, what the hell are we doing?
04:59Having no idea that the next day Herschel Walker would be traded.
05:02So, it's interesting, Jonathan Taylor carried the ball eight times last week against Jacksonville.
05:10And Herschel, I believe in that Green Bay game, carried it eight times.
05:14So, any running back, any top flight running back that gets the ball eight times, be careful
05:19because the next day you may be traded.
05:21Just make the assumption.
05:22And that was, you know, we weren't obviously a good team.
05:25And, Jimmy, I mean, it was, we'd have five new players every Monday.
05:30And, I mean, five new players every Monday.
05:33And it was just one big tryout.
05:36You know, I don't know the answer to this, but I should find out how many guys in 1989
05:42made the active roster for weeks.
05:45Because, I mean, it was coming and going.
05:47But, anyway, we didn't look at it like, oh, I think by that time we were, should we, no,
05:53we hadn't won a game.
05:54So, we didn't say, hey, they're mailing the season in on us.
05:58It's like, no, no, we mailed it in on ourselves.
06:00We're 0-7.
06:02But, that was one.
06:04And, when I see Jonathan Taylor and what's going on with him and the eight carries last
06:08week, I have flashbacks of Herschel Walker.
06:11Yeah, I mean, it does feel like the NFL is getting ready for him to be traded.
06:16Back on the Cowboys side, these last couple of games for Quinn and Williams,
06:23in the last three games, he has four sacks, three run stuff, seven tackles for loss.
06:28Have you noticed anything more aggressive or different about him in these last three
06:33games, or is he just finishing out some of these plays a little bit better?
06:36I would say the latter, because I didn't look at the beginning of it and say, wow,
06:40he's not giving effort or anything of that nature.
06:43And, I always love when people talk about schemes and what they're asking him to do,
06:49whoever that player is, right?
06:51DeMarcus Ware, a great example.
06:53You can play DeMarcus, I don't care if you play him in the 3-4, a 4-3, the old
06:59college
06:595-2, the current college 3-3-5.
07:03Whichever defense you want to play, DeMarcus Ware is going to go get the quarterback.
07:08Okay?
07:09So, Quinn and Williams, I thought, played pretty well early on.
07:15I think so much was, I don't want to say expected of him, but, and the other part is, you
07:19know,
07:19when you're not a pass rusher, and I know he's had sacks in these last three games, when you're
07:23not that edge rusher where you can really quantify how the guy is playing by the number of sacks
07:30he has, or try to, it's a little more difficult when you're in the interior, like Quinn and
07:36Williams is.
07:36But, no, he's played well.
07:37I think, you know, Abonios played great.
07:40Yes.
07:41Last week, Elijah Garcia, who no one knows, Elijah Garcia played great last week.
07:47And then, but you look at it and you say, well, if they're playing so great, why are
07:50the other teams running for 200 yards a game?
07:54And that's what a coach is to figure out.
07:56You know, can we go back to those two players for a second?
07:58Because I know to a certain extent, Abonia, but especially with Elijah Garcia, it feels
08:05like somebody who has gotten more playing time because of, like you were saying, them
08:09taking such good advantage of the opportunities that they've gotten.
08:14You know, that, and, you know, Quinn and Williams, if you look at that last drive of Arizona
08:19regulation, and he was just out of gas.
08:21So, you do have to spot these guys in.
08:24It's pretty rare, you know, Jaden Carter for Philadelphia, he'll play a lot of snaps.
08:30Max Crosby will play literally every down.
08:33But, you know, these big interior linemen, you know, they, again, Quinn and Williams was
08:39out of gas by the end of the game.
08:41Right.
08:41And you want those guys fresh in the fourth quarter, right?
08:44So, I do see Elijah Garcia, you know, you don't put him out there and say, well, this
08:49guy's a liability, are we going to hold up?
08:52I really thought he played great.
08:54Now, the expectation was not there.
08:56So, if he makes a few plays, we tend to say, oh, that guy played great.
09:00And if Quinn and Williams doesn't dominate the game, we say, gosh, what's wrong with
09:04Quinn and Williams?
09:05Yeah.
09:05So, there is a little bit of that going on.
09:08Babe, you've been around a lot of great coaches in your time.
09:11And you've been watching Brian Schottenheimer over the last year and a half go through
09:17this.
09:18And, you know, his coaching style is, where do you think he stands with this team?
09:24And the conversation of, hey, if something happens in this Colts game, because Kevin's
09:30been trying to get the Joneses to admit that they're going to change their whole direction
09:34if this happens.
09:36But with the head coach, should there be a change?
09:42I look at it two ways in support of not firing him.
09:48Number one, he's been on the job a year and a half.
09:52I don't see a year and a half into it unless they know something we don't.
09:56And I know we all look at games and say, oh, should have done this, should have done that.
10:01You've got to let him at least go through two years, at least.
10:04The other part is it never works when you fire the coach midseason.
10:09Never.
10:10And when I say never, I mean never.
10:12There's never been a time where a coach has taken over and then led that team to the playoffs.
10:18Rich Passaccia got close a couple years ago with the Raiders.
10:21I remember Dan Snyder fired Norv Turner when Washington was, I believe, 7-6.
10:28I mean, they were in the playoff hunt.
10:29Then they lost their last three games.
10:31So, and part two of this, or part three, I guess, who's going to be your head coach?
10:38I mean, if you fire, okay, they lose, Sandy.
10:41Who's on the staff that is going to take over the head coaching job?
10:45Nobody.
10:45And that's probably one of the problems about the defense.
10:49They don't have a lot of NFL experience over there on that side of the ball coaching.
10:54So, anyway, yeah, when they fired Wade Phillips, number one, that team was 1-7.
11:00They got blown out by Green Bay at Green Bay.
11:02They totally quit.
11:05And I said to Brad Sham on the air, on the air as we were wrapping up the game at
11:09Green Bay,
11:10and they were now 1-7.
11:11I just said, I don't know how you sell this to your fans.
11:15And next day, of course, Wade was fired.
11:17But that was Jason Garrett, who obviously was the coach in waiting on that football staff.
11:24So, they just said, well, why wait?
11:26Let's give them the last eight games.
11:27They went five and three in those last eight games.
11:30And they got a little head start on the next year, if you will.
11:33But there's not a coach in waiting on this staff.
11:36Now, I do think Clayton Adams at some point will be a head coach in the NFL.
11:41But, you know, he's not a play caller, has not been a play caller,
11:45although he does obviously make contributions to what goes into the game plan each week.
11:51And I do think, again, I think Clayton Adams will be a head coach one day.
11:54I just don't know if it will be, you know, week eight of this season or week nine.
11:58I'm also kind of curious, and this is a conversation we kind of had a lot,
12:03is when you're watching, somebody mentioned this week siloing regarding the offense,
12:09the receivers, the routes, and some of the things.
12:12And I was noticing a little bit of that whenever I was watching this last game,
12:15where, like, hey, look, Pickens, if he's bracketed,
12:18I just got to immediately look over to CeeDee Lamb,
12:21and CeeDee Lamb hopefully has beaten one-on-one.
12:23And that seems like a, like, I get it.
12:25It makes a lot of sense that that method right there would work.
12:28Because, hey, if CeeDee Lamb's covered by one man,
12:32it's going to be tough for that guy over there to get it.
12:34Is there, do you see when you're watching a lot of scheming open these guys
12:38and creating the space for them to have big plays?
12:43You know, we haven't seen a lot of guys running free, have we?
12:45No.
12:46But they've been the other team.
12:48Yeah.
12:50We have seen guys running free.
12:53See Trey McBride on that corner pattern for the touchdown.
12:58No, I mean, the coverage has been relatively tight.
13:02But I will say this.
13:03You know, people say you've got to get this guy the ball.
13:05The defense can take away anyone they want to.
13:08Yes.
13:09If they want to allocate enough resources,
13:11they can take away whatever you want to do.
13:15They can take away your running game.
13:16They can take away a receiver.
13:19Now, they can't take them all away.
13:21And that's where, you know, you don't break the huddle saying,
13:23I'm going to get the ball to CeeDee.
13:25You come up and you look and you say, oh, but okay, CeeDee's doubled.
13:28I'm going to be working elsewhere.
13:30Or you're reading coverage.
13:31But the defense dictates really what the offense does.
13:36And Al Davis had the, you know, very famous quote of,
13:39we don't take what the defense gives us, we take what we want,
13:42which is a great slogan.
13:44But the practical part of it is that's not the way you play offensive football.
13:51Now, win or lose, do you anticipate much on the Tuesday front from the Cowboys?
14:00Because you gave us the stat.
14:01I don't know if you actually said it on air or not,
14:03or we just talked about it off air,
14:05about the Cowboys only making the playoffs one time at three and five.
14:09And that was facilitated in part by a trade for Amari Cooper.
14:12Right, right.
14:14And they ultimately went 10 and six that year.
14:16It's funny, the Amari Cooper, so that was 2018.
14:18And I'll never forget, Cowboys were playing San Francisco in a preseason game
14:25at San Francisco or Santa Clara.
14:28And Jason Garrett and I, we drove over to talk to David Shaw,
14:32who was the head coach at Stanford.
14:33So on the way back, and I did not get into coaching with Jason.
14:37You know, we talked football.
14:38He asked me my opinion on stuff.
14:40But I would always say, hey, you're in there 14 hours a day.
14:43You know, whatever I say doesn't matter.
14:46But as we're driving back, and I had been at camp the entire time,
14:50and I said, let me just tell you, if you don't get a wide receiver in here,
14:55I said, here's what's happening.
14:57Dak is the guy that can't do it.
14:59You know, you're going to go off.
15:00He's not going to be able to function in the passing game.
15:04And everybody's going to say, yep, Dak can't do it.
15:07And that's exactly what happened for eight weeks.
15:10And if you go back and look at that 2018, everybody was out on Dak.
15:14And I know if you're the quarterback, everybody's going to be out on you,
15:19whichever city you live in, until you win the Super Bowl.
15:21You know?
15:23But sure enough, that's what happened.
15:25They got Amari, though.
15:26And it was amazing how they both got on the same page so quickly.
15:33I mean, usually that's going to take your time.
15:34And Amari was a very different route runner.
15:36Probably the most different route runner I've seen in terms of how he released
15:41off the line of scrimmage, how he ran his routes.
15:44And so for him and Dak to click immediately was, to me, again, amazing.
15:48But that did turn that season around.
15:50I don't think you look at this team and say, boy, if we get this player or that player,
15:57here come the playoffs.
15:59I mean, the defense, as we know, has just been horrific.
16:03What's most troubling is not being able to run the ball with three first-round picks up front.
16:08Yeah.
16:08You've got to figure that out.
16:10You've got three first-rounders up front.
16:12Arizona last week, I mean, we all know the Cowboys had good pressure against Arizona.
16:17They really did.
16:18You know, they're starting a seventh-round left tackle.
16:23Rookie.
16:23You've got a rookie seventh-round left tackle because Paris Johnson got hurt in training camp.
16:30You should dominate that guy.
16:32But when you've got three first-round picks up front, I just don't understand how they've not been able to
16:39run the ball.
16:41Excellent stuff.
16:43As always, we look forward to hearing you on the broadcast on Sunday.
16:48And whether or not you make that sound effect, I'm still looking forward to it.
16:53But, Dave, thank you very much.
16:55I'll give it my best.
16:56I know you guys have got to go to break, but let's just how quickly things turn.
17:01Last year, Indianapolis was 8-2.
17:04They made the trade for Sauce Gardner, gave up two number ones.
17:07They're 8-2, and they thought, okay, playoffs, here we come.
17:09They lose their last seven games.
17:11They're 2-13 since that 8-2 start last year.
17:152-13.
17:15It's the worst record in the NFL.
17:17So it just goes to show how quickly things can change.
17:19And when you think we're a Sauce Gardner away from being a Super Bowl team, be careful.
17:25That's a great point.
17:27It really is.
17:27Thank you very much, good sir.
17:28Thank you, guys.
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