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Brad Sham on strengths & weaknesses of the 2022 Cowboys | Countdown to Kickoff · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Where were the voice of the Dallas Cowboys, Brad Sham.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Jags and the Cowboys don't meet that often. Well,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the stakes are pretty high now, certainly for the Cowboys.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: The Jaguars hopes they're still alive in December and here
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: we are, Brad, it's been a while. Great to talk
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: with you. Yeah, you too, JP. I think the I
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: think the stakes are are big for both of them
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: because I really like the way the Jaguars are playing.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I think anyone who's ever seen a football game can
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: see what they've gotten. Trevor Lawrence and the way he's playing.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Doug Peterson has just been perfect for him. It looks
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: like and this you know, when you're start in the hole.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: We're certainly familiar with that. Um. When you start in
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: a hole, it's sometimes um, you can't get out of
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: it right away. But it's not an expenditure. It's an investment.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Everything that the Jags are going through right now is
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: going to help them next year. And in the meantime,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: we're sitting here in December, and I don't know how
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: many people I tell Cowboy fans this all the time,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and nobody listens to me here. I don't know maybe
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: they will there. But I don't know if you'd said
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: before the season starts, Uh, you know, on the eighteenth
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of December, a week before Christmas, Dallas is gonna come
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to town and the Jaguars are still gonna be alive
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: in the playoff race? Would you take that? And I've
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: got most fans would say yeah because they didn't believe.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: But here you are. Yeah, here they are for sure.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: We'll see what happens with the Jags down the stretch.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: They've got some walking down of the Titans to do.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: But same for the Cowboys. Right How good is this
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Cowboys team right now? And are they good enough to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: overtake Philly? It's head to head next week? But is
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: it too little too late? Well, there's there's three different questions.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: How good are they? I don't know. I don't know. Um,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: when the season started, when we went to training camp,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: even when we left training camp, they had they This
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: was a really unhappy fan base. It was an ugly
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: mood to my way of thinking around town. Uh, they won.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: All I did last year was going twelve and five
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: after having the year before that the historically worst defense
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: in the history of the franchise. And then they lost
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the first playoff game. The owner wasn't happy, players weren't happy.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Fans believe it is their divine right that has been
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: denied them by Satan for twenty five years now to
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: be in the championship and playing for a Super Bowl.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: So um, so nobody was happening, and they didn't. They
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: They came out of the off season without Amari Cooper,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: without Randy Gregory, resigned a couple of guys that, uh,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: people weren't really very excited about. I didn't know who
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: the kicker was going to camp. And then when they
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: finally resigned ma Her because everybody else was horrible, Uh,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: then the fan base went, oh god. And so then
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: they came home from camp where I think very low expectations,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and Tyrone Smith that suffered that ridiculous injury and so
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: now there's your all pro alignment gone, and and so
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I think everyone. Then they went out and laid an
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Ostrich egg against Tampa in the opening and the quarterback
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: got hurt. So that's it. I mean literally, I was
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: getting you know, tweets and texts. All right, we're playing
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: for draft choices, one game, for crying out loud, We're
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: playing for draft choices, who should we draft? Well, hold
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: on a minute. The backup quarterback turned out to be okay,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: defense turned out to be okay. Coaches might have somehow
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: known what they were doing. And they win four games.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: So now they're continuing to play and uh and the
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: fan base, which I try to ignore, continues to be irrational.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: But I think they're ten and three coming into into Jacksonville.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: So how good are they there? You know, Bill Parcels
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: like to say, you are what your record says you are,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and so they're ten and three. That's pretty good. There's
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: there's not too many teams better than that in the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: NFC right now. What happens on the field on an
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: individual day, nobody knows. Are they good enough to beat Philadelphia?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're as good a team as Philadelphia
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: or San Francisco right now. Now we'll see what happens
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: with San Francisco with their quarterback and how that affects them.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: But their defense is ridiculous. How good are they? They're
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: good enough to be where they are. I'm a big
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: picture kind of guy. Jp um And and perspective I
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: wish I wish perspective were my middle name, because I
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: try to. You know, they have not had double digit
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: wins in consecutive years since till now, they have not
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: had consecutive playoff appearent. This is the kind of thing
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: that makes the fan base man, and I get it. Uh,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: they have not had consecutive playoff appearances in fifteen years now.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: They haven't clinched that yet, but they might by the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: time Sunday nights over. They're I think they're good enough
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: to compete with Philadelphia, and whatever happens at the Bank
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: on Sunday, they might go out and lose to Philadelphia
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: again on Christmas Eve, and then they're gonna play him again.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: So they really at that point, once you're in, it
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter what happens in the regular season now matters
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: in the players heads. But they might be good enough
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: to beat Philadelphia in a given game. I think the
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Eagles are the best team going, and I've thought that
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: all year because of what they have. So, I mean,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I think they're pretty good, and I think they've see expectations.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: And as we know, when we watch a team all
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the time, we see the flaws, we see the awards
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: that other people don't see, and we might magnify them,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: and so I think they're good enough to compete in
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. How far can they go? I don't know.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: That's why they're gonna play. That's the fun of it.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Brad jam Voys of the Dallas Cowboys irrational fan basis,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: how yeah, we understand a little bit of that. What
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: happens from time to say, that's what it is. Fans
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: are gonna fan. They want the best thing for their organization. Defense. This,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: this Cowboys defense is right there near the top of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the league. I mean in in a lot of different metrics. Second,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: in sacks, Uh, they're pretty good on takeaways. Um. You
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: know this is uh, it feels like a speed rush team. Though.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Are they susceptible against the run? Um? Can the Jaguars
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: get some ground there this week? You know they don't
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: want to get in that third and on situation with
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Parsons and Lawrence and all those guys up front rushing
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the passer? What is what is the whole in this
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Cowboys defense? I know you might not want to tell me,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: but there's got to be some weakness somewhere. Well, yeah,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: there's of course there's weaknesses. And you know the funny
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: thing about these statistics is that My My broadcast partner,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Babel Offenberg and I talk all the time about you know,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: we love to pour through the league statistics, which come
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: out on Tuesday after the Monday night game. Now, the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: problem is the first four weeks of the season they
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: really don't mean that much because the sample size isn't
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: very big. And where we are now they really don't
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: mean that much because this isn't the same Jacksonville team
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that started the year. It's not the same Dallas team
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: that started the year. If you just look at the statistics,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the Cowboys are definitely susceptible to the running game. A
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: lot of that was built up by their inability to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: handle r po quarterbacks. Justin Fields killed them by the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: way they won that game against Justin Fields. Um, but
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: never mind that we didn't stop the run. Okay, so hurts,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Jalen Hurts is hurting everybody. But if you're gonna play
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the Eagles and beat them, you're gonna have to figure
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: that out. And uh, and then the Bears really killed them.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: And then they've had some some blips with some improvement
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: lately in the running game. And when I look at
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the Jags, the thing that that gives you a pause.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Is all the reasons that Trevor Lawrence was picked number
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: one in the draft. So E t. N is a
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: really good back, but that's not how they are going
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: to beat people. The Jaguars can get three scores down
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and be in the game, and a lot of teams
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: can't because Trevor Lawrence is built to pull you out
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: of a hole like that. So they always want to
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: stop the run first. But in this case, and I'm
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: just turning my head to look at the rest of
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the schedule. I mean, you know, Philadelphia hurts you every
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: which way, and then uh, and then they'll be in
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Nashville and you know all about them. The running back
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: will make you run screaming into the night. And and
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: then Washington's a division game and who knows what anybody
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: will be playing for by that. So this is a
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: different challenge for Dallas than they have had. Really. I
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: think most of the second half of the year they
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: have been susceptible to the run. This week, if I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: were the Jaguars, I'd be looking at you know, the
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Cowboys lost Anthony Brown, who's not a pro bowler, but
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: he's a pretty good corner. And now he's done for
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the year, and so if I if I'm Doug Peterson,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at a way to try to exploit that,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and I think that I think the Lawrence can do it.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Running game. Running defense has been there there their greatest weakness.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: But I've don't think that's the way that Jaguars want
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to They don't take the ball out of Trevor's hands,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: you know, So that to me is the intriguing part
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: of the game. Now that the other thing you said
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: it's really important is third and long. So nobody really
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: pays much attention to first and second down. If it's
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: third and eight and the Cowboys can keep them in
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: third and eight, then those are pretty good pass rushers,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: and you know they've got a chance to affect the quarterback,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: which is as important as sacking the quarterback. Affecting the
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: quarterback is what you really want to do. It's third
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and two, then he might keep it, or or E.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: T n might do or you throw a screen. There's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of ways to do it. So first and second, third,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: third and how long is a big factor. Rat Jim
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: with us. Let's flip it to this Cowboys offense now,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and obviously Zeke Elliott has been the main stay there
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: for a little while now, but the emergence are Tony
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Pollard alongside him in the back field has really balanced
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: out the running game. Two different styles. They're obvious and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: then Dak trying to throw off that play action. He's
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: got the big play guy and lamb down the field,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: but Dak will throw you one occasionally, especially this season,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: he's throwing some interceptions. Where is this offense right now?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Especially with that two headed backfield, and then Dak making
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: some plays occasionally off that coming off that injury early
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: in the season we had the the This is a
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: great example of why the statistics can lie to you,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: because if you just pick up the league stats, what
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: you see from Dallas is very greatly influenced by what
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: they did from weeks two to uh whatever it was
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. Um, and that was all Cooper Rush. Who
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: did I mean, you couldn't have asked for a backup
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: quarterback to do more than he went four and one
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: for crying out loud. But in the time that he
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: was playing until the Philly in the four games he
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: won four games total of about twelve that they were behind,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: so he didn't have to do anything more. And he can,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: he can throw the ball, but he didn't have to
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: uh do anything but stay within himself. Now that's not
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: DA's game. And unquestionably, the rate at which he is
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: throwing interceptions is both alarming and out of character. He's
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: never been that guy. So he has had you know,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: when he when he was in week his second week,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: everybody else was in the eighth week. So you have to,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I think, allow for for him to get kind of
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: back in the flow and reacquainted and the play calls
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: change and blah blah blah, it's time and and and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy says this all the time, and I happen
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: to agree with it. All interceptions are not created equal.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: He threw to last week. One of them bounced off
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the receiver, hit him right in the numbers um and
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: went up in the air. And the other one, uh
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: came with a guy draped on it, and he got
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: his arm hit as he was thrown, and the ball
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: didn't go anywhere near where it was supposed to go. Now,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: those aren't excuses, those are facts, as McCarthy says, and
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: I agree with that that the problems that you have
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: are when the quarterback is making decisions mistakes, and he
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: gets picked because he made a bad decision. That's happened.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I think he's got nine interceptions, and I would say
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: three or four of them have been that, and a
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: lot of them have been drops, bad routes, fuzzy routes,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Now we've reached the point of
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the year JP where it doesn't matter anymore. Just stop throwing.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Just stop stop throwing interceptions. His nature is to be
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: really aggressive, and it's also the offensive coordinator's nature, and
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: so he's gonna take some shots. And if he continues
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: to do that without mixed being in a little better judgment,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: then in the playoffs it will get killed. So you
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: have to stop turning the ball over. But I don't
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: it's it's what he's been doing, But I don't think
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: it's who he is. His career would tell you that's
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: not who he is, and that that last two minutes.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: We'll see what happens as a result of the last
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: two minutes. Last week against Houston, that's about as well
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: as you can play, and he threw I think he
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: threw four or five his best throws of the year
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: on that possession. So we'll see if there's any carry over. Um,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: you know it'll be everyone will look with interest to
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: see if t Y Hilton can do anything being thrown
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: into the mix. And James Washington played his first game
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: last week. I think they might have thrown one at him.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: So they've got some versatile tight ends. Don't know if
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: one of them. Jake Ferguson will be playing this week.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: He had a neck in jury in the game, so
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: that that'll be up right up till maybe Sunday. But
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: he's got some versatility at tight end. He's got not
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the greatest wide receiver corps, but he's got some versatility there.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: The backs can both run and catch, and they have
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: done a really good job of using Pollard and Elliott
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: and those two guys have done a great job of
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: working together. So the first quarter of the year, the
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: defense was literally carrying the team. Now there's a little
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: more balance, but you can't give the ball away, so
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: ball security is number one, and then then they've got
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to go back to to taking it away a little
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: bit better. But it gives you a chance. Brad. I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: think the only time that, at least in your Cowboys role,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you've been to Jacksonville's two thousand six right. I mean, well,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: we actually played we we played a couple of preseason
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: games there in the early days of the of the
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Jaguars franchise. Stated saw Grass the first time, if I
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: recall um. But yeah, last time they played, not in Dallas,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: was in London and um. And so the Cowboys are
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: old for Jacksonville. They've never won, they have never won
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: in Jacksonville, and I think everybody's looking forward to it,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: but I think for the players it's a business trip. Well,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: let's hope that continues the old for Jacksonville Park. You
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: can that. I'm not hoping that. Just saying brand thanks
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: for the time man, great to visit with you. Yeah, JP,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: always good to talk to you.