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Locked On Cowboys - Daily Podcast On The Dallas Cowboys
Cowboys Defense IMPLODES as Panthers SHOCK Dallas | Is Eberflus on the HOT SEAT?
00:27:25
Cowboys' Defense Crumbles in Stunning Loss to Panthers. Can Dallas Salvage Their Season?
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Host (Locked On Cowboys Podcast)
Foreign podcast Network your team every day.
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Tyler Roland
I'm Tyler Roland from Locked On Titans. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. It's a great time to apply for an Apple Card you'll love earning up to 3% unlimited daily cash back on every purchase and no fees period through this special referral offer. When you get a new Apple Card, you can earn bonus daily cash. To qualify, you must apply at Apple Co. Get daily Cash Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch. Variable APRs for Apple Card range from 17.99% to 28.24% based on credit worthiness rates. As of October 1, 2025, offer may not be available elsewhere to terms and limitations apply.
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Host (Locked On Cowboys Podcast)
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Host (Locked On Cowboys Podcast)
Sponsor of the NFL. Another embarrassing performance by the defense. Sinks Another incredible Dak performance. Where do the Cowboys go after their 30 to 27 loss to the Panthers? We'll provide some guidance on the Locked on Cowboys Podcast.
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Tyler Roland
You are Locked On Cowboys, your daily Dallas Cowboys podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast network your team every day.
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Host (Locked On Cowboys Podcast)
Thank you for making the Locked on Cowboys Podcast your first listen every day. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network your team every day. I am your host L and this episode is brought to you by Mazda. Like our players, we sweat every detail because when you make every move count, pulling off the unexpected is only the beginning. Stay tuned later for highlights in this week's Moving the Game Forward. Mazda Move and be moved. We have a lot to discuss in this show today, including another horrible defensive performance that sunk the Cowboys chances. We'll also discuss what recourse the Cowboys even have at this point in the season to deal with this awful defense and the defensive coordinator that is currently leading it. But first, let's discuss some of the positives of the game. All right, before we sink down into the mud and discuss how terrible the defense was, which it was absolutely awful, let's discuss a little bit of what the offense did. And honestly, you know, discussing the offense itself is a little bit depressing because it just makes you realize how much of a wasted opportunity there was. The Cowboys got another MVP level performance from their quarterback who was missing the starting Wide receiver, two of his starting offensive linemen, and, and was able to move the ball. And also despite the fact that the Cowboys offense was unable to run the football, it does feel like the fact that you had backup offensive line kind of finally caught up with you this week when you played a team that had three really quality interior defensive tackles who all three really made themselves feel, be felt. I thought Robinson and Brown specifically really had a good game and it was, it stymied the Cowboys running attack. And so basically the Cowboys offense had to operate in the passing game alone. It was one of the only things that was working for this team, but it was working incredibly well. Dak Prescott ended up 25 of 34 for 261 yards and three touchdowns. That was led by George Pickens. Nine catches for 161 yards and one touchdown. It felt like outside of the first and the last drives that the Cowboys were basically able to move the ball almost seemingly at will. There was one other punt. I'll go over the drive list right, right now, the Cowboys had their first three and out punt, which you know, I mentioned up front. Then they went field goal, touchdown, touchdown, end of half, punt, touchdown, field goal, punt. So the Cowboys offense was doing a great job moving the ball. They were able to convert on third downs. They struggled a little bit on earlier downs, especially because the run game seemingly just didn't have any juice. There was nowhere for them to run. I think they averaged some under three yards of carry. It may even be two and a half yards. So yeah, just not a great day for the Cowboys offensive line as far as moving bodies. But as far as protecting the quarterback, they did a great job. Dak had plenty of time back in the pocket, was able to kind of get, get through all his progressions, was able to find open receivers and, and, and, and complete, complete passes and convert even in some, several, several long down situations. Threw the ball into the end zone three times. You know, it's, it was doing excellent work pre snap getting them into the right play. I, I thought that for the most part, the Cowboys offense once again kind of did what they had to do. Jake Ferguson, you know, added a 33 yards and a touchdown. You saw a little bit of Ryan Flournoy who had a couple of different catches and conversions which were nice, you know, so it felt like the Cowboys had what they needed on the offensive side of the ball to win the game, but it didn't feel like, you know, the defense obviously reciprocated. Now, you know, as I mentioned, the, the run Game wasn't perfect. The offense wasn't perfect. There was some aspect of the offense that I think we need to discuss. And, and, and it specifically needs to start with that three game sequence that happened at the end of the game. The last three and out the Cowboys had before they gave up the ball to the, the, the Panthers for like I think the last six minutes of the game, they never got the ball back. So I think if just wanted to go over that play calling sequence real quick because I do feel like it was a frustrating sequence for a lot of us. It, it felt like, you know, that they were trying to. Well, we know what they call the first down. They threw a play action, bootleg, roll out, throwback screen. So if that sounds like a lot, it's because it was a lot. A lot of things happened on that play which meant it was a very long developing play. They play actioned that kind of drifted to this right a little bit in a bootleg kind of motion. And then the idea was that he was going to be throwing the ball all the way back to the, the flat with a screen that was being set up. But it took way too long. The blitz that the Cowboys were likely anticipating on first down never showed up. And so, and what ended up happening is that turns around, throws the ball. It took entirely too long. The defense read it the whole way. The defense tackled Williams for I think a five yard loss. And then they, they, they, you know, the second play they, they go out and try to run what felt like kind of another swing design swing pass. Almost similar to what we saw with Lipke last week. I think it was when he converted that third and down, a third down. That was actually a play that I, I pointed out where they tried to swing it out like, almost like a mini screen with one blocker ahead. But again it, it, it just. The Panthers had seen the tape on it, they knew what was coming, they anticipated it and it was another five yard loss. And the Cowboys get into a situation now where they're in third and 20 plus. And, and so of course, you know, they kind of run a third screen which you know was really just kind of a give up at that point, but just a really frustrating sequence. Obviously. Frustrating just like with the re. The results and what the results of each play meant for the play calling on the next play. You know, the, the blue blown up screen kind of, you know, begat the attempt to try to get something going with a little swing pass which begat a give up screen on third down. Just really frustrating. Stuff, you know, especially since the Cowboys knew that they needed to score points there, they needed to put up more points to win this game. I don't think that the Cowboys anticipated that they were not going to get the ball back again and that that was going to be their last possession. I think if they felt like that, they probably wouldn't have punted on third, on fourth down even, you know, or at least gone down the field on third down a little bit to put themselves in a situation where they could go for it on fourth down. But, you know, just frustrating situation near the end of the half. I mean, near the end of the game, that. That really kind of, you know, you don't really want to blame the offense for having one bad season sequence, right? Like, because obviously the defense is the glaring issue here, but the offense at this point has to understand that, you know, they're not getting anything from the defense. The defense, you know, isn't gonna get the ball back and give them another stop. They've got to take full advantage of these. Of these situations and get as many points as possible because their defense is simply not going to be able to consistently stop anyone, it feels like. And that's based on all the. The facts and theories of everything we've seen in this game so far. So, yeah, we'll definitely get a break down the defense. There's a lot to talk about there. But again, on the offensive side, it felt like Dak did the lion's share of work. He did what he could to try to make this team relevant, to keep this team in the game. I felt like he played at, like, a. MVP level, but unfortunately, it just wasn't enough at the end. And the Cowboys ended up, you know, seeding the ball back to the Panthers with six minutes and. And never got the ball back, which is. Which is pretty shocking. So that obviously leads us to the. The conversation that we have to have about the defense and, you know, what we do about the defense moving forward. We'll talk about the results of what happened, and then what we need to do to try to fix it next. You know the old saying, look good, feel good. The problem is that most dress clothes only check one of those boxes. 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He got them into the right play. They called the slant to Pickens who caught it on the run and ran through the secondary all the way to the end zone. And that was a play that moved the game forward. When you follow what moves you, the unexpected is only the beginning. And just like there's more to every highlight, there's more to every Mazda vehicle. Mazda move and be moved. Welcome back to the Locked on Cowboys podcast. And having to discuss the defense is going to be probably the death of me. But we have to break it down. It's, it's a game breakdown and we're all here to suffer together unfortunately. So let's get into it. Look, I think one of the first things that we talked about all throughout the week was that the Panthers were a very efficient and very good first down team. Right? They run the ball well on first down they throw the ball at their best on first down. The best situations were for the Dallas Cowboys defense was to try to get them into obvious passing down situations. That's where they kind of can struggle a little bit. Bryce Young isn't just that kind of quarterback necessarily that is going to be converting a lot of third and long situations. And, and frankly, this offensive line wasn't necessarily, I think, up for the task for a lot of those situations, as the Cowboys later in the game did start to show a little bit of pressure at certain points. But the Panthers didn't ever really need to worry about that because there were very few situations in which the Cowboys won or had any sort of success on first down. And that's where the Panthers consistently were gashing the Cowboys. I think at one point going into halftime, the, the Panthers were averaging over seven yards a play. I think Dowdle ended up averaging six yards a carry, but I think before halftime it was well over 6.5, 6.6. And, and the, in the, the, the Panthers were just moving the ball at will and, and really, you know, short of a fumble pitch play that happened with 44 seconds before the half and then I think a penalty, not if I'm not mistaken, right after that, the Cowboys wouldn't have had very many stops at all in this game. And in fact, if you just look at the drive summary, they frankly didn't. It was for the, for the Cowboys defense, I mean, and for the Panthers offense it was field goal, the interception that, that clanged off of the receiver's hands and went right into Wilson's hands. Touchdown, field goal. Touchdown, punt, Touchdown, punt, field goal. So they had no problem moving the ball and scoring. Outside of the obviously early interception which came off of Tetra McMillan's hands and right into Wilson's hands, the Cowboys defense was really unable to kind of get anything going. And, and, and like I said, when they were able, the only opportunities they had to, to kind of get off the field or create a punt situation was when they won first down, when they limited them to under four yards on first down and, and made them work in second and third downs, get behind the chains and, and you saw them kind of be a little bit more human. But, but outside of that, you just saw, I mean, Rico Dowdle just have yourself a day, man. I mean, you came in and you talked all week about it and you, you backed it up in a way that the Cowboys certainly didn't, weren't able to stop him. 30 carries for Rico Doddle. 183 yards, another four catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. Just, just a dominant performance. And the Cowboys didn't seem to have the ability to kind of do anything to stop him or slow him down. This performance really felt a lot like last year's defense, right where it didn't, it wasn't as much of huge plays down the field in the passing game, you know, although, you know, Dowdle did have the 36 yarder and J.C. horn had a 20 out of 30 plus yarder as well. I mean, there were certainly the busts and coverage that we've seen this year that are, you know, have been kind of more of, of a 2025 situation than a 2024 situation. But I, I think, you know what the real issue in this game specifically was a complete inability to stop the run, a complete inability to kind of get into your fit correctly. It felt like they were using wrong leverage. It felt like the, the edge was being collapsed. It was, it was being blocked off. The Cowboys didn't seem to have any kind of answer when they were running to the edge of. It was really brutal to watch. And, and you know, at the end of the game, it felt like that the, the Panthers were in complete control when they had the ball. The Cowboys were kind of just helpless to allow them to do anything. That first drive out of the half, you know, the, the, the, the Panthers ended up, you know, going 80 yards on like two plays and, and I'm sorry, on like four plays that included two 30 plus yard plays in it. So, so yeah, I mean, it just felt like the Cowboys were in a. Unable to kind of make any kind of stop. You know, there were certain guys who felt like, you know, were playing well at times. I mean, Shemar James ended up with a bunch of tackles again, but I don't think it means anything if you're making the tackle six yards off the line of scrimmage. So it was just, it was really brutal. Brutal to see how many holes there were where there's constant confusion. The secondary, people weren't sure what was happening. Bus and coverage, like we mentioned, it just felt like the, the defense looked lost. And, and I think that that's what's so incredibly frustrating about this is that it's not even just like a talent issue at this point. It's not even. It feels like if you replace a guy here or there, that's going to be enough. It's like you need to replace several players and then probably change your defensive coordinator all in the season. And, you know, I don't know if that's a realistic thing to do this year. So we'll talk more about that in the next segment. But you know, just kind of watching this team and just seeing the sort of just fast or famine is like what you hope for this defense to, to come to, but most of the time it's just famine. It's frustrating. Right? And, and again, in the context of what your offense is doing and, and, and, and how well they're performing to be able to like, to not even be able to put up any kind of resistance against a team like the Panthers, which, you know, isn't exactly a high flying offensive unit. It's, it's, it's not a good indication of where this team is for this season. And, and, and because the issues are kind of so systemic and you know, it's, it feels like it's multiple personnel issues. It's, it's, it's a scheme problem or at least a lack of understanding the scheme problem. I don't think it's necessarily that the X's and O's don't work. I think it's that this team just doesn't understand the X's and O's and they haven't been taught the details the way that they need to be in order to perform well in this, in this defense. So yeah, it's, it's, it's humbling, you know, in a lot of different ways to watch that defense go out on the field and see how bad they are in, in a variety of different areas. Run defense, pass defense, and, and again, not just getting outperformed physically, but also just looking confused, looking like they don't know what they're supposed to be doing on a certain play. Guys getting 15 yards behind the, behind the defense and, and no one really is certain who's supposed to be over there covering that guy. It's stuff like that, that week in and week out and it's not getting better. It feels like it's getting worse. That really makes you question what is exactly the plan and what can you even do about this defense? Is there even enough to be done this season to save this defense? You know, these are good questions and I think this is something that we're going to need to discuss. We'll talk about that in the next segment, so make sure you come right back and we'll have a conversation about what can be done about eber flutes in this defense. More on that next. When the opening whistle blows on a new repair, get your crew moving forward with Supply House order today and see parts on your doorstep tomorrow. Over 280,000 H VAC and electrical items from the most trusted brands in the business. 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It just gives a little bit extra edge when you're sitting on the couch watching 12 games at once. You pick one out, you want to put some money down and hopefully it gives you a little bit more zest to your Sunday afternoons. And whether you're a casual fan or loving diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. It makes football watching even more exciting when you've got a little bit of something riding on the acture. So what are you waiting for? Visit FanDuel to download the FanDuel app today and get started. Welcome back to the Locked on Cowboys podcast. And you know, after diving into this defense, if you're not feeling furious and angry and, and, and wanted to do something about it, you're probably not so much of a Cowboys fan. But I, I think that when you examine our list of options, none of them are great. And that's the real problem. I think that where we are right. Oops. Where we are right now with, with this whole situation is that, you know, it feels like Eberfluss deserves to be fired. It feels like this team is not responding to his leadership. But the, you know, is firing Eber flu something that is even, you know, going to help this team at all this year? Is it something that is, you know, that it can even be improved upon? I think that that's, you Know, that's where I'm at now is. Is. You know, last week, we talked about the fact that the Cowboys really needed to win this game, and then probably the Washington game. And then you would feel like this team was worthy of kind of investing on and trying to improve in the 2025 season to see what you can do to kind of build around this defense to help support what feels like a really, really good offense, a top offense in the NFL. And I think that, you know, after watching this week, it's. It's hard to kind of look at what's going on and feel like, hey, you can make a couple changes here and there and get this defense where it needs to be, and suddenly, you know, you could be a playoff team. I just feel like this was such a kind of disheartening performance by this defense. I mean, they. They ended up giving up. I think it was 6.4 yards per play on. On defense against the Panthers. You know, it's not like the Panthers are. Are world beaters on offense. It's. It's. And that's the issue, I think, is that it's, you know, perform bad performance, you know, obviously bad results, bad process. The scheme seems bad. It just seems like everything about this is just not working. But trying to replace a defensive coordinator in the middle of the season is also something that, you know, is not necessarily a guaranteed success. I mean, you look around at what your options like. Let's just play the hypothetical out a little bit. What happens if you fire Matt Eberfluis? Right? What. What's your. What's your plan then? Well, you're probably gonna have to look internally. I mean, otherwise, you know, we could talk about external candidates, but, you know, first of all, any candidate who you would be hiring, that's worth the salt, you know, doesn't want to take over a job halfway through the season. I. I think that that's, you know, someone like Mike Zimmer probably would hang the phone up if you try to call him. Not that that would be a good solution anyways, because it's such a different. A weird vibe change. And I think that's the other issue, too, is that, you know, mid season is not exactly the best time of year to be changing your defensive scheme. Right? Like, you don't really have the time to install like you do, like the preseason and training camps and OTAs and mini camps. That's. That's why you have all that. So any defensive coordinator that. That's coming in here is more than likely just taking up the calls in the system that was set up by Uber Floose and then just making the calls on their own, which, you know, it kind of doesn't really solve the issue that we're having at this point if we feel like that the players are not ingesting the, the defense as a whole. So I, I guess the question then becomes like, if you're gonna fire Abraflus and you probably gonna promote from within, who is that person? I mean, are you talking about Dave Borgonzi? Are you talking about Andre Carter? Are we talking about Aaron White Cotton? Because none of those guys, even though they all have 10 to 12 to 14 years of, of coaching experience, none of those guys have ever been a defensive coordinator or have called called defenses at any level, as far as I know, in their coaching career. So there isn't a, a real clean, you know, solution here as to what's next. After firing Eberfluss, you. You may have to think about going outside the building to get someone which just doesn't feel like it's necessarily a great idea. However, talking out of both sides of my mouth, I also understand the idea that, you know, it probably can't look much worse. Right? Like, it's, it's as bad as it is. I don't know that it could be much worse. And, and I do think that there is something to the idea that if you don't do something that, that should lose the locker room a little bit. And, and I think that this is a tough situation for Schottenheimer right now where, you know, he's performing admirably. I. We feel like the offense is doing its job for the most part. There was certainly some things that we just talked about earlier in the, in the show that felt like could have been done better, but I feel like for the most part, you're satisfied with where Schottenheimer has led this team, how he's led this team. You're satisfied with the offense and the way it's being called as a whole. And it doesn't feel like this is a shoddy issue as far as the scheme and the, and the personnel parts of what's going on on the defense. So Shoddy's got a tough decision to make. Right? Like, how does he solve this while trying to improve the situation without, you know, ruffling feathers and hurting, you know, the relationships he has, the people inside the building. Because it's sounding more and more like the players are frustrated with this situation as well. Right. Like, obviously Diggs had a meeting with with the coaching staff talked about playing more man coverage. They've asked, you know, the coaching staff if they're willing to make some changes to kind of play to the team's strengths. But you know, it doesn't feel like it's moved the needle too much. Seemingly they're playing still a ton of zone. They didn't blitz very much in this game once again. So yeah, it just feels like there is a point in which if you don't make a change, you could lose the locker room and that could present its own problems. That could present, you know, a long term issue that you don't want to have. So yeah, the Cowboys have a lot of decisions to make about how they want to handle the defense moving forward because, you know, neither solution that is being presented to them right now appear to be really great options. So the Cowboys kind of need to have a come to Jesus meeting a little bit with their coaching staff, figure out how they're going to solve this and if they're trying to angle to be better this year or if they're just punting and looking at the situation for next year. Well, that's it guys. And thank you so much for making the Locked On Cowboys show your first listen of the day the NFL season is finally here. For your second listen, get a double dose of the Locked on NFL podcast. Tyler the Madman Roland gives you a shot of espresso to start your football day, while Tony Wiggins takes you into the barbershop for the smoothest breakdowns to end the day. Find Locked on NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. We'll be back on with Marcus next week. Make sure you join us then.
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Tyler Roland
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