The Invasion- Schottenheimer On Cowboys Defense

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1:00Well, let's talk a little Dallas Cowboys as we did get the news yesterday. Coach Brian Shottonheimer had his press conference after they got back. Looked at the film able to analyze a few things and he did let it be known that Kobe Durant has a hamstring injury and will miss time. They don't know how much. And how did that one to be in a hamstring issue? I wondered the same thing. I thought that was strange, but maybe they're just calling it. Yeah, maybe they don't want to say exactly what it is. They don't want to say the bottom pulled, but right. But the other big one is PJ Lock who tore his planter fascia and will be out a while. And he was asked at the presser if they thought I R would be a possibility. He didn't know at this point, but he also said that it's normally better, oddly enough, if you tear it, it just starts healing immediately, but they don't know how long either of those guys are going to be out. And of course, that puts a little bit of adamant need in the secondary. He's got the corner and it's safety. And you look at this.

2:00There's nothing to add up here with Malik Hooker in his forearm. And now he joked about this at the press conference yesterday, because he was asked it with all the travel and everything. And he goes, well, we're the Dallas Cowboys. We can get somebody. But that player, you got to make sure they got the passport in the visa. And they're leaving earlier than they normally would to get out to Brazil. So be curious to see what they do, but they're going to have to have two players, whether it's practice squad, wherever they come from, they're going to have to be added to the secondary this week. You would think. You would think. And I wonder if that's going to affect what you do with Caleb Downs. And I know you've been playing them all over the place, but do you need him at safety now because you don't have lock and Malik Hooker? Is that going to be a shift to change for him? But in a defense that drastically needs to improve each and every single week, you're starting to get some, uh, some guys that are going down. You're going to rely on some guys that are man that may stunt your growth a bit as far as trying to get better. Yep. So it's going to be a challenge for those guys to try and get better. And now it feels like it's not the time for this when you have a Baltimore team coming in with Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson.

3:04And now you have to get some guys up speed as far as, you know, going from being a backup to now playing significant snaps. I do wonder if that's going to change their thinking and repositioning of Caleb Downs. He's been effective here. These first couple of games. Yes, you know rookie mistakes. He's going to make a couple of those, but overall he's been playing really well. And it's because they are the ability to move him around. So do you say, man, we really need your safety. Maybe you can, um, you know, you have the Ron Blan and and revel may start and I, but it's they're going to have to mix and match here a lot. Yeah, I would, I bet revel starts and they give him an opportunity to show what he can do. They like the way that he's kind of been improving. And then of course, when you look at the practice squad, you've got ready steward who is here and played significant snaps form last year at corner. They also have Darion Kendrick who they got on the practice squad who has played for the Rams most recently. So those would be maybe potentially a couple of options.

4:04And do you try to keep Caleb as just a safety and you use somebody else at nickel for corner? I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do. It's it's a challenge now and you're going to have to make those adjustments. You did see that they're going to leave on Thursday, I believe. Yeah. Have a practice leave Thursday, get to Rio and then, uh, you know, have the game on Sunday and fly immediately back. So a little bit early, no, no, no, no, the earlier than normal when they would leave for regular game, they're going to try and get adjusted to the time in Rio, which is good because you saw last night. This is a clip that was going around where Sean McVeigh at his post game press conference flat out admitted that he screwed up and he said, your dumb ass coach didn't have you ready to play because they flew out the way they flew out in that opener in Australia. We knew that from the beginning. Just the whole point of them sending those three or four staffers out to Australia to go kick it. Not go and play a football game and practice and do everything else. So silly. Go and chill and they come back and I'm not saying we're fine.

5:06And of course you didn't do anything. And so the Cowboys, it's a 10 hour flight. They will be on a plane for 10 hours. And so you have been on a plane for that long. I mean, is that does that create jet lag just 10 hours? It's about how you adjust when you get there because they will always tell you don't immediately fall asleep. Because for me, I don't sleep well on planes. Yeah. So when I get there, I'm pretty tired. But they say, man, you got to try and make sure you don't fall asleep and just get adjusted to their time. And once you do, you'll be fine. And that is the case. But it's tough. If you're wide awake like I am and you get there and you're just flat out exhausted in, you have almost like a whole day to kind of chill before you want to lay down. It's tough. And I don't know why they didn't even think about that with the Rams. That just, they just gave a game away, a divisional game. Just gave it away because they were a plan would have, would not a full deck from the very beginning of it. Yeah, and that'll be weird for us because it's, it's essentially a night game for the Cowboys because they kick around 530 Brazil time, I believe.

6:10Because there are two hours ahead of us. So when they kick mid afternoon here, it'll be a little bit later in Brazil. Is it in wow that they're flying 10 hours, but it's only two hours difference? Because they're going south so far and it's just slightly. See, a two hour difference when you do that, it doesn't make it seem like you have to adjust too much. I wouldn't think so, but because it's only a two hour difference. I don't know how that operates coming off of a plane like that. But Brian Schaunheimer did have a couple other things that he talked about at his press conference yesterday. And one of the things acknowledging something that all of us are talking about, we talked about it a lot yesterday, man, with the problem running the football and problem defending the run. When you've got Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson, and if you heard Edward or who was on with them, users this morning, the NFL insider, as he has each and every Tuesday, Ed mentioned that what Baltimore is doing is different. They have a brand new coaching staff. They've got a brand new offensive coordinator for Lamar Jackson for the first time in his career.

7:11And you look at it, he has been under center 58% of the time through their first two games. And Ed pointed out that in years past, maybe 10% of the time under center. So it's a lot different than things they can do with him that can confuse the Cowboys. But here's what Coach Shadi had to say on the run defense issues that they've been dealing with so far. Yeah, I would say obviously our run defense. I still think that there's some things we got to do from a running game, containing the quarterback. I thought white heard of some with a couple things. We're going to play a team this week that's very, very good run in the football, both with Derek Henry and with Lamar. And we're going to see runs. I would run against this. So we're going to be better. We've got to set edges better. I thought there was some steps in the right direction. But I think you can see that if we can get people behind the sticks, we have the ability to rush the passer. But you've got to get people behind the sticks and that starts with the run defense.

8:13But you have to have the ability to get there when you rush the passer. Because you have a quarterback like Lamar Jackson, just like last week, a couple days ago with Jayden Daniels. Yeah, man, you can play great defense in the secondary. And then you're rush. You get a little pressure, but as soon as he steps up, it is wide open spaces for him just to gain chunks of yards. It's like he did. And if you think Jayden Daniels did that 9 for 69 or whatever it was on Sunday, just think of what Lamar Jackson is capable of. Right. So setting the edges, I think, is way more important than you saying. Yeah, we got pressure on the quarterback. Well, that dude can elude it and get out in the second area. And the way they were tackling their loan in the game, it could be trouble for Dallas. And I think it's interesting to hear your head coach say, yeah, I'd run against it. And it reminds me of last year when he walked into and told, Ebel Fluss, what I would do against your defense, how pulling it's playing. Right. And you wonder, and we all we all speculated how short is the leash for you to walk in and say things like that and try and get involved.

9:15And we know it's not just Christian and Parker, you just run the defense. And I'm just going to stay over here and nothing these days. They had coached. So he has something to say, but I wonder if there's no way he would wait as long as he did against with Ebel Fluss to see if they can correct some of those mistakes because they have a couple of teams who really want to physically run the football against Dallas. And they're going to have to be better. Yeah, that's I would guess you start right around now. If you're shot in Heimer, because to me, if you're I would run against us where you have those meetings with Christian Parker and say, Hey, here's what I would do offensively. What do you think and how do we get more upfront to not allow that to happen? Because the way they've built this team, you're not supposed to be able to run against. Right. The way they suggested, yeah, with Quinn and Quinn and William, the front. You shouldn't be having the success that you're having, especially we're not seeing these big runs around the edge. We're seeing runs up the middle and just chunk plays up the middle for six yards. And they can't stop it.

10:15Your linebacker should be eating, right? They should and they're not because of what the middle is doing to occupy those offensive linemen. So one of the other things that he said, and you'll hear the magic word again that he mentions on defense, but he was asked, what do you think improved from week one to week two on defense? And of course, he had to mention communication. Yeah, I thought the communication was better. I really did. Again, I thought Jay Sean did a terrific job with the green dot. I was really proud of him. He played well, got the force fumble. That was great. But like I said, I wasn't surprised that the communication was better, but I would start there. And that's where I think you're going to start hearing a lot of that again this year about the communication because that does seem to be, we mentioned this last week, that seems to be the word that they use to disguise things that they know are wrong. Oh, it's communication. Our communication was better. But because you know why? Because when you say things like that, that makes it seem to the fan base or anyone listening

11:16that that's fixable. Yeah, we communicate better. Exactly. Instead of saying, we can't tackle it. Damn. Oh, we're just out of guys. Good enough. We don't have enough talent around here. You just overly say, well, I asked communication. And then you get a, you get a win 37 to 20. Of course, yeah, communication is better. Again, the next time they lose a game and we start talking about communication, pass me an ice pick because I'm going for it. I'm going for my ears because it's, I think that's just a catch phrase now that you can just go to instead of trying to address some of the real problems. And there are things that he's not going to tell us. He's not going to sit there and say what the real true problems are. But man, New York communication was not an issue. It wants you got beat up at the line of scrimmage and you, they were way more physical than you were. And if you're going to start seeing some of those other things like Rob receivers running wide open, all right, that's one thing. But dude, I just just missed me with that. But I think it's going to be a blanket thing that every time they lose, that's the problem.

12:17And then every time they win, it's better. Instead of realizing what the problem is because you always think, well, if you communicate better than it is going to get better. So that's the only issue we have a way more issues than that. Saturday, September 26, two of combat sports' most dangerous strikers collide. Bear Knuckle. Liverpool's own down in the Gorilla Till goes to Moore with Cuban Powerhouse, Joel Soldier of Da Romero. Plus, the Bear Knuckle Midowit Championship of the world is on the line when the rating Champ Dave the Redneck Mundell defends against undefeated British challenger, Jack Demeek Cleaver-Colin, BKFC 94, Till versus Romero. Watch it live only on the zone. Sign up now at TheZone.com.