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Cowboys' Crazy Schedule, Early NFL Impressions with Babe Laufenberg · The Craig Way Show

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: If I'm Houston, I'm taking my Hail Mary shot right here.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Because the Cowboys are not going to get it.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: 48 to Dallas. Stroud is back. Wait.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: He's standing.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Nobody's rushing. He's heaving it now. It is the Hail
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Mary shot. Into the end zone. It goes. The ball
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: is knocked down. Incomplete. The clock expires. The Cowboys have
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: won the game. The Cowboys have come back. Happy anniversary,
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Houston Cowboys. What a win that is!
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I said it.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Last week, Brad, after the Baltimore game, and I'll say
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: it after this game.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: If you didn't have a dog in the fight, that's
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: a heck of a game. It certainly was.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: And the Cowboys got the win, and they have the
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: quick turnaround on four days. They'll play the Tampa Bay
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: Buccaneers tomorrow night. You can hear that on our sister station, 98.1
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: FM KVET. Thursday night, you heard Brad Sham, the play-by-play
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: voice of the Cowboys, and his broadcast partner joins us now,
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: a longtime friend.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Good to visit with Babe Laufenberg.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: Hey, Babe, before we even get into talking about the
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: football and all the other kind of stuff, I know
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: that originally, of course, being from California, so you probably
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: have appreciation for the Grateful Dead. And I had Jake
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: bump back with a touch of gray there because both
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: you and I have a touch of gray. So there's
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: a little bit of that, but it also belongs in
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: the yacht rock genre.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: And this is a yacht rock Wednesday.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: Do you have an appreciation, if not an affinity for
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: yacht rock? I've never asked you this before.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, of course.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're our age or around our age,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of what you grew up with
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: to an extent.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Right. Did you ever see the Yacht Rock documentary, by
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: the way? Isn't it wonderful?
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Just all the way to the tail end where Donald
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Fagan is telling the guys to.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: We're on the same page. If I remember one thing
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: about that documentary, it's Donald Fagan... Saying, yeah, I don't
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: think I subscribe to that genre or something to that effect.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: And yet, and I'll say this, certainly, certainly not all
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Steely Dan is Yacht Rock, but there is some that is.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, you can't tell me that you'll listen to
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: Deacon Blues or Asia and not see how that belongs
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: in the Yacht Rock genre.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: It belongs in there.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Well, don't tell Donald Reagan that.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: No, no, definitely don't do that. It's good to have
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: you on, and I've been wanting to get you on,
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: but I knew it's just been nuts, crazy, the way
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: this schedule has worked today. for the Cowboys, and somebody
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: asked Brian Schottenheimer yesterday about, hey, are you past all
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: the crazy travel and all that? He goes, nope, nope,
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: got this game with Tampa Bay, and then we'll worry
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: about it then, and we'll deal with it then. He said,
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: still working on sleep deprivation, and I know it was
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: kind of an unusual setting for you guys because of
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: the game being in Brazil and weird things that happened
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: with That kind of set up as well, and then
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: having to turn around and go.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: To Houston right off of that.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: Let me start off by getting you to describe what
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: the last two, three weeks have been like getting through
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: some of this.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Well, obviously a lot easier for Brad Sham and me
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: than it is for players and coaches, but the ones
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I really feel sorry for, Craig, and if there are
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: any coaches listening, they'll say, yeah, right on, right on.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: It's the coaches. I mean, players.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: They came back from Brazil and players basically got a
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: couple days off.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: But coaches, you know, they had to get right back
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: to work to get ready for Houston.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: And then you finish that game, road game, obviously a
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: very short trip.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: But, you know, they're right back in the office at
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: 6 in the morning on Monday.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So they have to be running fumes right now because
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: you still have to get all the work in, right?
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: You still have to get all your short yardage work in,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: your third down offense, your two-minute offense.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: So coaches are game-planning.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Just the same way they always would, but they have
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: three days less in the week to do it. So, uh, yeah,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I will, I will bet they will be pretty well, uh,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: beat by the time that game ends on Thursday night, but.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Let me very quickly to this.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I believe this is the only time the NFL has
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: had a team play a international game and then not
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: have a buy the following week.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: You're right.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: And so the cop, not only did the Cowboys not
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: have a buy again, it's a short trip as we
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: know to Houston, but then you got to travel and, uh,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: You know, all that takes a little bit out of you.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting. Also, one last thought on the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: whole game and travel in this. Cowboys ran 78 offensive
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: plays against Houston. That is a lot. So those guys
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: are out there for 78 plays. Not all of them
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: are playing all 78, but obviously your offensive line is.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Receivers are playing quite a bit of it. those legs
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: are going to be tough to bounce back by tomorrow night.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and for folks who say, well, the road trip
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: to Houston was short, it's still unpacking one bag, packing another.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: It's still going out to get on the charter. It's
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: still being in a hotel and doing all that before
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: you get back home. I mean, there's still travel involved,
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: even if the flight is 40 minutes as opposed to
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: 10 hours, right?
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: All of the above.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget, Craig, I was watching, obviously, many years ago,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the late, great Bob Phillips, think it was on the
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Johnny Carson show. But anyway, Johnny said something about, you know,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: like the roadhouse, you know, the road trips travel, how
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: you go to go to New York. How is that
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: for you? So, well, I'm said, well, we, here's what
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: we do. We, we practice it on the day we leave.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: And then we, we get on a bus and then
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: we fly to the game or fly to the site.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: And then we get off the plane. We get on
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a bus, we go to the hotel. Next day, we
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: get on a bus to go to the stadium. He said,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and then we play the game and we get on
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: a bus, go to the airport.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: And then we airport. we fly back to Houston.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: He said, so if you like riding planes and buses,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: it is awesome.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: No doubt about it. Let me get your overview now
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: here through four weeks. Like I said, I'm weird about this.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: I'm a more is more guy normally. The 17-game schedule
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: has had me discombobulated from day one because I'm a
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: believer in straight, logical, symmetrical numbers. And four games is
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: the exact one-quarter poll. And there's 32 teams and there's
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: 16 games.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: It all worked.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: Symmetry worked, and so it's all out of kilter with 17.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: But that said, having almost mathematically played a quarter of
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: the season, what's your overview right now of this football team?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Well, I always think four games is a pretty good
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: sample size to kind of know what your team is. Now, obviously,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: you won't really know until you get to November, right,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and Thanksgiving. But I thought the defense in a nutshell
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: would be better. They've been bad. It's like they just
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: picked up where they left off last year. And I
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: thought the offense would be good and they have been good.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing too.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: It's funny. Houston, the Houston Texans, their.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Last eight losses going into the Cowboys game, of their
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: eight losses, six times they had held the opponent to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: 20 yards or less. The Cowboys conversely, They have won.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: 27 straight games.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: It's the longest active streak right now in the NFL
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: when they hold the opponent to 20 or less. So basically,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: if the Cowboys have held their opponent to 20 points
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: or less, they have won the last 27 games when
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: they do that. And you're not asking for a shutout
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: or three points, 20 points. And they only did it
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: once last year. They beat Las Vegas, held them under.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: And then they did it so far. Once this year,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: they beat Washington 37 to 20. But, I mean, 20
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: isn't too much to ask for, is it, for your defense?
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: The Cowboys win. It's that simple.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, especially when your offense is putting up 30 and
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: a half per game, which is number two in the
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: NFL right now.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're just flipped. And what's funny is tomorrow
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: night's game with Tampa. So Cowboys, great offense, playing no defense. Tampa,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: great defense, playing no offense. They're just flipped. I mean,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Tampa has been really, really good defensively. Obviously, it gets
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: lost in the shuffle because they're 0-4. But I will
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: say all four of those games were one-possession games where
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: it kind of came down to, you know, they talk
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: about the NBA, of course, being a make-or-miss league.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: That's the way the NFL is now, too.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, Tampa had the ball driving at the end
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: of the game last week, down three.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: They score. You know, they win the game.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: But obviously they didn't end up playing an undrafted rookie quarterback.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: How familiar are you with him, as a matter of fact?
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Does Texas get them?
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: No.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Hasn't got them in the last couple of years?
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: No.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: And I was going to ask you, obviously they were
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: 0-3 before Jalen Daniels had to play.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: So I take that into account.
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: That said, how much do they miss not having Baker Mayfield?
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Well, you certainly miss, anytime you obviously, you know, you're
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: missing your starter, especially a player, a good player like
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield, it's going to hurt. And then, you know,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Washington is able to sustain it a little bit because
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: they have Marcus Mariota behind Jalen Daniels there.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Jalen Daniels.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Jalen Daniels is playing tomorrow and I've been putting the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: two of them, Jalen and Jaden Daniels together for the
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: whole week. But anyway, you know, Tampa Bay, they, they clearly, um,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: went into the season. It wasn't like they they're down
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: to their fourth quarterback and they're playing an undrafted rookie, but, uh,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: it made a difference. You know, he struggled naturally. Last
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: week was his first start, Daniel's first start.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: And he struggled, which is to be expected. And the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: other part of that is, you know, a guy like
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: that gets in as a rookie. He's not a first-round
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: draft pick rookie where you were grooming him all training camp, right,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and giving him all the reps and getting him ready
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the minute you drafted him. That wasn't the case with him.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: He had to actually earn that backup spot. But he's
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: a very charismatic guy. I dug into, you know, looking
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: at him, looking at his tape. A little bit erratic
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: throwing the ball.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: A very good athlete.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: You know, he can beat you running the ball, as
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: it seems like all the quarterbacks now can. It's rare
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: that you find a guy who's not. I don't want
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to say a dual threat, but for lack of a
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: better word, a dual threat. So, you know, he can
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: beat you with his legs, but it's just, it is
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: so tough for a rookie to get thrown in there
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: like he has.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: And, you know, they're good around him.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: They're good around him, but they're not great.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: You know, they don't have Mike Evans anymore.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: They don't, they don't, no one really scares you at
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the receiver position for them. Chris Godwin, good, solid player.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: He's in his 10th year. He's not the speed threat
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: that he once was. Bucky Irving, NFL running back, but
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: he's no B.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: John Robinson, who we saw the other night. So he
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: just doesn't have a lot of weapons around him. So
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: it's going to make it really tough on him.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: And by the way, when I said they didn't deal
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: with him, the main reason they didn't play, and they
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: just saw him fleeting, he was injured. Almost every time
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: Texas played Kansas back then. He was injured and couldn't
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: go or tried to go. There was a game in
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: Lawrence where he played very briefly and then just couldn't
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: go in Texas. It kind of blew out Kansas that
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: day in Lawrence. I think it was the last time
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: they played them. But he was injured a lot. And
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: so that's where they ran into a lot of the
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: issues there. Visiting with Babe Laufenberg, talking Cowboys here on
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: 13 Under the Zone. I'm not usually a big fan
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: of this statement, but I want to get your thoughts
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: on this. I saw an article, one of the national signs,
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: maybe the athletic, or it might have been ESPN. But anyway,
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: they said that the wins by the Rams, the Patriots,
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: and the Cowboys, might have been quote-unquote season savers. Now,
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: in the case of the Rams, I think that's right
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: because had they been one in three and with Buffalo
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: coming up, maybe it craters and goes downhill. Patriots, I
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: don't know about. Where do you stand with that sort
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: of thing and that sort of headline? As we know,
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: headline writers have to write headlines, right?
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, sure. And, you know, I always laugh at the
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: must-win game. I always say this. To me, there are
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: two must-win games in the regular season. It's the one
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: that eliminates you from making the playoffs, right? Now, if
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I know I lose tomorrow night, we're out of the playoffs.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Then that's a must-win game. And when I get to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the playoffs, they all become must-win games, right? Because if
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I lose, I'm out of the playoffs. But I don't look,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: you know, four games into the season, it's crazy. Houston,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: great example. They were 0-3 last year. Then they rattled
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: off nine straight wins, go 12-5, win the division.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: So, yeah.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I never look at the early games as, as must
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: win games. Nobody's going to run away with this division.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: You know, Cowboys are two and two giants are three
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: and one. I don't see the giants ending up 13
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and three at the end.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Of the season. So. Yeah, I do not put a
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: lot of stock into must-win games this early in the season.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: What do you make of the 2-2 Eagles, who all
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: of a sudden have really struggled offense, and now Lane
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Johnson is retired, and of course Saquon Barkley's out, and
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: Devontae Smith has been out as well. What do you
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: make of that team? Is it only about the injuries,
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: or is there something else just kind of missing with
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: Jay Sirianni's ball club?
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Well, you know what's funny about that, Craig? I always
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: feel like every year there's something missing. And then every
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: year they make the playoffs. Sirianni has been the head
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: coach of that football team for five years. This is
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: his sixth. They've made the playoffs in all five. They've
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: made two Super Bowls. They've won one. And everybody wants
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: him fired. Jalen Hurts is the same.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: You watch him and.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: You're like, God, they've got to get better. And then
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: you realize, okay, wait a minute. He's taken the playoffs
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: every year. He's been a Super Bowl MVP. Could have
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: been a Super Bowl MVP in the game they lost
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: if that thing had flipped and they had won it.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: He probably would have been the Super Bowl MVP. And
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: yet they want a new quarterback. So Philly is just,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: they're just a crazy football team. I mean, every year
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: they seem to have something going on. And last week,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: 0 for 12, I think, on third down. 0 for 12.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's just, that's crazy. So I never, I
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: never discount philly and as a matter of fact last
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: year philly you know there's eight divisions of course in
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the nfl you got four in the afc four in
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the nfc philly was the only repeat winner uh in
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the division all seven other divisions had a new winner
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: from the previous year so again every time you you
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: look at philly and say okay they're done or they
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: look at the they're discombobulated or they're dysfunctional here they come.
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: I i just read a story earlier a little while
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: ago on the air about something that happened at Pat's Cheesesteaks. Now,
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: have you been to Pat's or Gino's down there? I
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: think I have been to Pat's. I don't often go
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: out like when we're on the road, but I think
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: I went one.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Time a number of years ago, but I think it
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: was at Pat's and it didn't throw me.
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's the deal where you get the cheesesteak with
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: the onions and the cheese whiz on it or something.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, cheese whiz.
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: And the guy was not happy and the story said
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: he threw it into the face and hit an employee
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: right in the face. If it had not said employee,
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: I was going to wonder if it was Sirianni he
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: was throwing it at, but it wasn't. It was an
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: employee that he threw it at, but such is the
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: way of life in Philadelphia, I suppose. You know, with
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: regard to the NFC Central, or the North, excuse me,
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: I used to say you used to call it the Central.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right. Black and blue division. Yeah.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: How weird it is, isn't it, to see what's happened
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: recently to say the Packers or the Lions even, or
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: even the Bears who won it. And then to see
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: an unbeaten Vikings team that has won back-to-back games without
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: scoring an offensive.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Touchdown a game. Yeah, the NFL is crazy. It just
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: really is. I mean, you just, you can't predict anything.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And by the way, Craig, the same guy that knows
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Yacht Rock knows the NFC Central.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. There you go. See, that's right.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: You say the same wheelhouse there.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: No, but, you know, Green Bay obviously struggling. Now, Green
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Bay has just been decimated on their offensive line. People
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: don't usually look at, you know, you look at the quarterback, oh,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: we're missing the quarterback, or we're missing the receiver, you're
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: missing the name guys. But nobody ever looks at the
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: offensive line. But there are three offensive line starters. It's
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: hard enough, as you know, at any level, high school, college, pro,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: to find five good ones. And when you're down three
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: of your starting offensive linemen, that's going to be a
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: long road to hoe. And Detroit, I don't know what's
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: happened to their defense. I mean, they have just been
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: terrible on defense. But Detroit's a team too. I think
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: they'll be there at the end. I don't think Dan
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Campbell will let that team go away. He's going to
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: get things. He's going to.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Right that ship, if you will. And they do. You
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: talk about a team with offensive firepower, they have it.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: So If any team can sustain, maybe outside of the Cowboys,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: a porous defense, it's that offense in Detroit.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: Best division in the NFL or in the NFL? Is
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: it the NFC West? Well, certainly at the top of
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: that food chain, right? With San Francisco and the Rams.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: And Seattle, yeah.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: It's so funny how we forget about Seattle, right? I mean,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: they won the Super Bowl last year. And everybody, well,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: is it going to be the Rams? And hey, I'm
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: guilty too. is it going to be the Rams or
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the 49ers?
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: And, but no, that, no question. That's tough.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: And everybody thought the AFC West was going to be
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a brutal division.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: And Denver's not playing great football. We know Chargers haven't
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: won a game yet.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: So, you know, the, the season kicks off the things
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: we think we know, we don't know. You know what
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I always laugh about too, Greg, people will say, oh,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that's an underachieving team with fill in the blank, whatever
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: team it is.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: That's an underachieving team. You know what that means? What's that?
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I miscalculated how good they were. I thought they were better.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: But we don't say that. We don't say, gosh, I
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: was wrong. I thought that was a better team than
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: they're showing. You say... Oh, they're underachieving.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: So that way I can validate my point that I
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: was a good football team when I started out.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: That's a great point. It's like you're adding a thing
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: about that. Oh, yeah.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Or overachieving. Hey, they have overachieved. Maybe you just didn't
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: know they were better than you thought they were.
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: You didn't think the 49ers were going to be as
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: good as they were. Yeah, that kind of thing. Final
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: thing here.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: What.
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: We always do these stupid things where we just boil
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: it down to one. We know there's so many things
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: that go into winning and losing, for that matter. But
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: if there's one element that is more important than other
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: elements in tomorrow night's matchup for the Cowboys to get
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: back on that plus side of the 500 ledger, what
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: one element are you looking for that you feel is
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: as important, if not more important than anything else?
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I haven't thought about it, but since you asked me,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: I will.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: If you were to say one thing that they kind
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: of have to go into this game with, it would
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: be just not giving up a big play to Tampa. Again,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: you've got an undrafted rookie quarterback making his second.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: NFL start.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And as long as you don't give them a big
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: play and you make them drive the football for eight, 10,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: 12 plays, eventually you're going to get them off the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: field on third down.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: As bad as the Cowboys third down defense has been,
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: you'll get them off the field.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: But what you can't do is give up that chunk play,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: that 50-yard play to them. So to me, defensively, if
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you keep everything in front of you, they're not going
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: to be able to march the ball down the field consistently.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: And your offense is averaging 30 points a game, averaged
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: 30 last year.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: So they should be able to take care of business. Yeah.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: By the way, just an add-on, in your playing and
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: or broadcasting career, have you ever seen a receiver have
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: a game the likes of which you saw last Sunday
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: with CD?
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: No.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Well, I have because I called him the game when
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Jason Witten caught, I believe it was 18 passes. Oh, yeah.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: 18 or 19.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so they just kept throwing him the ball. Played
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: with Art Monk in Washington, and Art had a game.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Can't remember exactly how many he had, but he had
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: one of those games where it's like, are they ever
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: going to cover him?
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right. And that was the thing about CD in
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: that game.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: If you watched it, it wasn't like, There were two
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: guys draped on him, and he made the catch.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: He's running wide open on routes. I have one.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: I actually posted it to my Twitter, if you care
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: to take a look. It's at Babe Loffenberg.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: But Brevin Spanford, they kind of run a little stack,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: two by two.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: So it's Spanford and C.D.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Lamb on one side, on the right side of the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Cowboys' offense.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Spanford runs a corner route. They're doubling him, okay, with
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: the corner and the safety. And C.D.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Lamb is one-on-one with the linebacker. And I'm thinking, I
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: don't know that they went into this game saying, okay,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: here's what we need to do. We need to double
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Brevin Spanford, and we'll put the linebacker on CD as
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: he runs his option route, let him deal with it.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: So there are a few in there where I was like, okay, well,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: it is giving him receptions.
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: Maybe that's why after the game and at his news
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: conference yesterday, reporters continue to ask D'Amico Ryans about coverage breakdowns.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: And he said, well, we don't like having coverage breakdowns.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: How about coverage scheme, you know, maybe?
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: And again, I know they didn't design it. I know
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: they didn't go in with a game plan saying, okay,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: this is what we're going to do.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: We'll double span forward and we'll let a linebacker cover CD.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I remember Miles Garrett had a five-sack game last year
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: against New England. And they asked Grable after the game
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: something about, you know, the scheme or this or that.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Vrabel said, you don't think we were trying to block him? Like, oh,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: we didn't know he was any good. He said, basically,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: we were trying. We just couldn't do it.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: He's Babe Laufenberg. Jake just showed me what Babe had
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: posted on his ex account there at Babe Laufenberg. I
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: found that Art Monk game too. Oh, you found the
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: Art Monk game? uh jake by the way is from
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: dc so that's why he's gonna.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Oh there you go well at one point very quickly
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: art monk had the single season receiving record i think
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: it was 106 receptions in my 84 yeah obviously 100
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: 104 is now you're halfway through the season it was
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: it was december 15th 1985 13 catches 230 yards and
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: a touchdown against cincinnati.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Wow okay there we go yep yep Well, he's a
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Hall of Famer, so he had a lot of really
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: good games, obviously. Now, Craig, very quickly, am I going
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: to see you tomorrow? Let's promote that. Yeah, let's see.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Not tomorrow, excuse me, Friday. Yeah, absolutely. Where are you
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: going to be?
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm going to be in a variety of places
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: for Texas OU Friday. You're invited as well to go
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: to that media luncheon soiree. Brad shows up at it
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: a lot. I'll give you the details on that if
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: you want to do that. Then I'm going to see you.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: And then we're going to be at Bar W on
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: Maple Avenue doing our show.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: That's the one. Yeah. The show runs from 2 to 7.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: I'm doing 2 to 5.
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: Then I'm going to go see my daughter over in
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: Flower Mound.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: But yes, absolutely. I'm going to make sure to see you.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: I'm going to make sure to see you.
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: Yes, that's what the great thing about texting is that
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: we can keep in contact on that. And as a
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: parting note, since you grew up a Rams fan, and
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: I am a Rams fan in addition to Cowboys, since
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: we're talking about receivers, who can forget Flipper Anderson over
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: 300 receiving yards against the Saints on a Sunday night
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: in the Superdome?
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, but wait a minute, though. Also, we're on the
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Yacht Rock. The NFC Central.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: So you got to go Jack Snow as your receiver. Oh,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: number 84 was my favorite.
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: I'm waiting for, I'm told they're going to break out
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: the blue and whites at some point this season.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's Monday night against the Bills. Who knows?
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: I'd love to see it. Hey, it's great to visit
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: with you. I appreciate it. I will plan on seeing
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: you on Friday. We'll hook up on Friday.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I'll be there. I'll be texting. Thank you, Craig. Appreciate it.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: All right. That's Babe Loffenberg.
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: You can hear him and Brad call the Cowboys and
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: the Bucs with the coverage beginning at 6 o'clock on 98.1 FM, KVET,
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: our sister station, on Thursday night.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: We have more coming up as we continue on 13
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Under the Zone.