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Locked On Cowboys - Daily Podcast On The Dallas Cowboys
Cowboys Face CRUCIAL Test Against Panthers | Will Dallas DOMINATE on the Road?
00:27:01
COWBOYS vs PANTHERS: Can Dallas avoid the trap game?
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- [00:00]
Landon McCool
Foreign.
- [00:04]
Tyler Rowland
Podcast Network your team every day. This is Tyler Rowland from the Locked on Titans podcast. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. I love how simple it is to pay using Apple Card with Apple Pay. It's built right into my iPhone so it's always ready to go. I was on vacation recently. I didn't even have to bring my wallet to the beach but plus I earn up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase when I use my Apple Card with Apple Pay. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app on your iPhone subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more at applecard.com on this Disney cruise.
- [00:50]
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- [01:04]
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- [01:39]
Landon McCool
If the Dallas Cowboys want to be a playoff team, they have got to take care of business in games like the one they have this Sunday at the Carolina Panthers. Will they show up to work? We'll answer that and get you ready for another important road game on this episode of the Locked On Cowboys Podcast.
- [02:03]
Tyler Rowland
You are Locked On Cowboys, your daily Dallas Cowboys podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast network your team every day.
- [02:14]
Landon McCool
Thank you for listening to the Locked on Cowboys Podcast. Reminded that you can follow our show and hear our new episodes ad free daily on Amazon Music. I am your host Landon McCool and today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you'll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Folks, we have a great show for you today and we are going to dive into the offensive side of the ball to see how Dak and the Cowboys can attack this Panthers defense. And we will, as always, as mandated by law, the law being obviously Marcus Mosier. We will be making predictions at the end of the show. I hate it. I don't know why I'm doing it, but I'm following through here even though Marcus isn't here. But first, let's have a conversation about the Dallas defense and what they're going to do against Bryce Young and this Panthers offense. You know, the, the, the, the Panthers offense is kind of middle of the road. You know, they've, they've had a really kind of up and down season. There was a lot of expectations on this offense going into the season after a resurgence from Young near the end of the 2024 season. After being benched early in the 2024 season, they finished strong. There was a lot of expectations. They get, they went into the draft, they get a wide receiver that a lot of Cowboys fans pined for heavily at the 12th pick for Tea McMillan, but he of course didn't make it down to 12. And if he, if he had, there's a high likelihood that he would have been a Dallas Cowboy instead of George Pickens. But as we stand now, as where the Panthers are, there's, you know, a little bit middle of the road offense. They have a 47.1percent rate success rate, which is slightly lower than, you know, right. Slightly above average, but they are slightly below average in passing success rate, slightly above average running the football. We saw a lot of that last week, right as, as Rico Dowdle, friend of the show, friend of the show and former friends of the Cowboys, ran for over 200 yards rushing and he's not even necessarily the starter for the Carolina Panthers as Juba Hubbard is normally the guy that's getting the kind of bulk of the load there. But Hubbard is out. It was out last week and it appears we'll be out again this week. So we will see a lot of Rico Dowdle and, and I think that that's going to be a huge part of their game plan because Carolina wants to possess the football. They are currently fourth in the NFL in time of possession margins behind the Bills, Falcons and Lions. That, that measures the margin of distance between the, the two time of possessions. And the Panthers have been doing a lot in trying to possess the football and I think that that's a way to kind of protect their defense a little bit. They're not a team that's going to be out there trying to trade, you know, uppercuts with, with the, with the Cowboys offense. They're not going to try to go out there, score 35 points a game. So they're going to try to possess the football and keep it close and try to win that way. But the Problem is, penalties have also been an issue for these guys. They have the second worst penalty margin which has resulted in the fourth worst penalty yard margin. They're negative 82 yards underwater versus their opponent penalty yards. And that's going to make it difficult and has made it difficult for the Panthers to kind of play that sort of ball possession game. They are good at consistently generating drives. They have almost the exact same three and out percentage rate as the Cowboys. And I think that all stems from the fact that the Panthers offense is very good on first downs. They have the fourth highest success rate on first down in the NFL at 50%. And funny enough, the jets are the number one team in this category with a whopping 56.1% first down success rate. So first down is by far their best passing down and frankly their best running down as well. The Cowboys have got to have a plan for how to attack that, how they're going to deal with this team on first down. Because I think if you can find a way to find success on first down, they're, they're a little bit middling on second down and then if you can get them to third down, this is really where you're able to kind of make things, things happen against this offense. They're, they're just not great on third down. You know, Young has a 34.6 success rate. He's underwater on the EPA per drop back. He's only, he's only averaging, he's got a 53% completion rate on third down. So the Cowboys have got to find ways to win on first and second down, which has not been an easy affair at certain points with, with the, with the Panthers. If they could find a way to limit big plays early on and, and you know, keep this, keep everything in front of them. I do think that this is a Panthers team that's not necessarily going to want to get into a shootout with the Cowboys because they're going to have their own defensive pass rush and passive defense issues that we'll talk about a little bit later. So for the Cowboys, they've got to find a way to kind of get this run defense going against what is a pretty solid offensive line that they may be missing. Taylor Mouton, who missed, I think last week, but has been dealing with a series of injuries. A really talented, you know, left tackle. I'm sorry, right, he plays right tackle. And then they, they've got icky, a guy that you may have remembered from the, from draft draft periods. A couple, I think it was, I think Icky was a, uh, uh, a first round pick in the 2023 draft. But again they just have really, really uh, talented, uh, they've solidified the interior of that offensive line a little bit as well in, in 2020, 2022 draft for Iguanu. So you know, Damian Lewis, Cade Mays, Brady Christensen, all three of these guys have played good football so far this year. They are going to continue to, I think to try to rely on the run game because of the success that they had last week. You know, Rico Dowdle has already come out and, and tried to start some stuff and that to me indicates that he thinks that he's going to have a heavy role in trying to, you know, score these points, keep possession of the ball and, and try to keep the Dallas offense off the field by running the football, converting easily converting, try to get easy conversions to try to keep drives going, long possessions in order to stretch the game out and, and try to limit the number of possessions. Because I think if they, if this gets into a situation where it's a, it's a high possession game, but I think this is, that's where the Panthers will lose control of this game without a doubt. So for them it's going to be a game about possession. Make sure that Young is in, in, in easy to convert situations. Don't make him get into the third down. This is obviously the Panthers, that's what the game plan is. They don't want to get him into third down. They want him, you know, getting big chunks on first down, easy completions for conversions on second and third down. Don't get into a situation where you're having to get into long down a distance to throw the football. And it's not so much that they can't, they have problems protecting. I mean, I think, you know, sacks have, have been a relative issue but not, not like overwhelming issue for this team. I think the issue is more that they don't have a ton of pass catchers to go downfield and make plays. If it's not Tetro McMillan, you know, Xavier Leggett has been really up and down. Hunter Renfro was a guy that they signed like right before the season started and was basically retired before this. So they have some issues in the wide receiver room outside of, of their first round pick. And if, if you focus a lot of tension on, on Tetra McMillan and you make them win in other spots with their tight ends which are, you know, Marcus is a big fan of Tommy Trimble, but I don't, I don't know that he's necessarily moved the needle. Sanders is not a guy that's going to threaten you down the field too much. So they want to avoid having to have to throw the ball down the field. Not so much necessarily because they're worried about pass protection but, but they're, they're worried about their ability to be able to have guys to create separation down the field and and actually do something with, with the on third downs and long to be able to convert. They have struggled there. So look for the Cowboys to try to get them in those situations. Try to make them throw the football. Obvious passing down situations. Obviously game script will help with that and we'll talk about that. How can the Cowboys get into that game script that forces the Panthers to throw the ball? We'll talk about 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. Their real time inventory and honest lead times keep you from punting projects while the their industry leading customer service always has your blind side covered. Want to avoid a false start on your project? Need parts fast. Supply House has next day delivery. Talk about a game changer. Join the Trademaster program today and score serious perks like priority shipping, lower prices and a dedicated support line. 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- [11:28]
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- [11:46]
Landon McCool
Welcome back to the Locked on Cowboys podcast. The Cowboys offense going on the road clearly is going to want to and they've had some success previously running the football and that's one of the ways that they're going to want to try to just kind of stabilize this game. They feel like they're probably the more talented of the two teams. They want to be able to run on this on this. Carolina's defense in order to kind of keep the balance, keep the keep the fans out of the game. It just provides a level of stability that makes it easier to play on the road and it's good to get that kind of physicality going in the game early in in order to kind of get Cowboys rolling and have a fast Start. Which is another thing that we want to see the Cowboys do. Like there is a lot of that we want to see the Cowboys do in this game against a team that is probably one of the last teams the Cowboys are going to face in which they are, you know, even close to being favored. Right now the line is technically Carolina plus three. They're playing at home. So that's, you know, I think, you know, they're basically implying that the Cowboys are the favorites here. I think that, you know, the, the Cowboys run defense is, I mean, sorry, the Panthers run defense is good, but it could be a mixed bag, right. The Cowboys will have to find a way to kind of get around that. The defensive tackles that the Carolina will put out there, they have a kind of a trio of guys that they put out there. Obviously Derek Brown from Auburn, War Eagle is, is the highlight there. He's developed into one of the best run stuffing defensive tackles in all of football. They've, they've got Asan Robinson now who's also kind of playing do some three, four stuff a little bit, but they mostly play in nickel and dime packages. But they, they are going to use these defensive tackles as well as Bobby Brown, who they signed from the, the Rams was a guy that, that, you know, a lot of Cowboys fans were looking at as potentially someone that they could assign as a nose tackle to kind of help stop the run. So they have guys on the interior that they can trust and rely on a little bit to kind of help them try to dictate things on the Cowboys a little bit, you know, and, and, and we'll see. I mean, Tyler Smith is hopefully back in this game, so you're going to get a little bit stronger there. We think that Tyler Booker is likely still another week away as well as CD Lamb. So you're going to see Brock Hoffman, you're going to see TJ Bass who have played very well. And this is another challenge inter interior wise to face the likes of Robinson, Brown and then Bobby Brown as well. On the outside, on the edge, it's a different story. And I think that that's where the Cowboys are going to try to make some hay to have some success. The two kind of edge players that they have are Pat Jones and DJ Wanham and, and you know, so far this season they haven't had a ton of success. You know, as, as pass rushers, they've been okay as run defenders. It's if it looks like just kind of glancing off of pff metrics from what I've seen And just kind of casually what I've seen of the Carolina tape, you know, they're bigger bodied guys like they're 254, 260, you know, edge guys that are also, you know, they're playing next to 300 pound guys. So there is some thought that they should be, you know, a little bit more solid in the run game. But I do think the Cowboys are going to be able to attack the edges in the run game and find ways to, to, to get, get, you know, big chunks. Especially since that second level of that Carolina defense doesn't look as solidified as the defensive interior. If you, if they can, if the Cowboys can break things loose, get, get, get Javante Williams, Miles Sanders, blue loose on the second level they should be able to create big chunks that way and that will open things up in the past, past game as well obviously. So I do think that that is a way to attack this team. And again, if they're going to play in nickel and dime personnel, which is then the vast, they play something like 90% in nickel and dime packages. If they're going to do that, you can run the football and you should be able to have some success even with, if they have two of those big hog mollies inside, you should be able to find ways to, to get some success running the football and then creating play action pass and attacking them that way. You know, the corner situation is interesting. Obviously J.C. horn is a first round pick, a guy that they liked a lot and you know, they have a couple other younger guys. It's a very young defensive backfield. Trevor Morig is a, is a kind of talented safety that they, he's in the back end. But outside of that it's a lot of young guys that are kind of inexperienced and just by the Panthers way that they play defense you could tell that they're trying to avoid overexposing. These guys are playing a bunch of zone coverage. They're not blitzing guys. They're trying to just kind of keep it all in front of them. Frankly it reminds me a lot of what the Cowboys were doing early on with their secondary of just basically trying to hide them and being afraid to kind of do too much. Again, Panthers also don't blitz a lot, so. But they've had real problems rushing the passer. Panthers are dead last in sacks. They're dead last in defensive EPA earned by sacks. They're second to last in pressures. I mean, you know, folks have been complaining about the Cowboys, you know, sack and pressure situation. The Panthers through Five games have as many sacks as the Cowboys had through four games. They have as many sacks as, as the Cowboys had last week. They have five sacks right now. So the pass rush is not an issue, right? Or at least it hasn't been so far. If they aren't blitzing and DJ Wanham and Pat Jones are coming after you just in a straight four man drop and you could block up this interior, which again, that's the thing. These guys are run stuffers on the interior. They're not necessarily great pass rushers. So if you can block them up, up front, there should be lots of opportunity against a young secondary. Even without CD Lamb again this week, even with Pickens going against JC Horn, there should be plenty of opportunity to throw the football. I think Jake Ferguson and the tight ends could have another big day because of the, the tight end situation that we just talked about. Even though Trevor Morrig is a good, good safety, it's, it's a lot, you know, and having to kind of keep track of all that. We'll see how, how that all pans out. And again, another opportunity for guys like Fenoy and, and, and Tolbert to kind of go out there and to prove their worth a little bit more. And we'll see exactly the running back situation is too. But if it's Jaden Blue, maybe there's some opportunity for him to expose these linebackers in coverage, create some, create something out of the space that's being provided by the deeper routes down the field. I do think that this is a situation where this is a little bit better of a run defense than some of the other teams that we've played. Maybe not Philadelphia, but you know, a little bit better than probably the Jets. So they, they may present a little bit of a challenge, but the Cowboys have got to find a way to get that run game going just to kind of continually present a balanced attack. I do think that that will kind of keep things off, off going. And look, I mean, they're going to play a bunch of zone coverage, they're going to kind of keep things in front of them. But, but the Cowboys are going to have opportunities. There's no one on this team that can really generate, quote, quick pressures. Like we said, Pat Jones and DJ Wanham lead the team in pass rushes. They have four and three quick pressures. Quick pressures being pressures that Undercur, occur under 3 seconds. So 4 and 3 and through 5 games is not a ton. Right. For reference, Fowler has 11 and Kenny Clark and Donovan Ezraku both have six. So these are not guys that are getting off the ball quickly and creating quick pressures. They Dak should have opportunity to throw the football, to scan the field to make the quick decision. So if the Cowboys can, you know, continue to continually keep a balanced attack, they should have time for throwing the football. Whenever they decide to throw the football, Dak should be able to move the football on this, on this team. Even if they're going to try to keep things in front of them a little bit, there should be plenty of opportunities for the Cowboys in the run game and also in the passing game if they're able to just block it up and let things develop a little bit more down the field. All right, we've kind of reached the the end of this. And guys, we are going to do our predictions next, so make sure you stick around for that as it's again required by law. I know Marcus is watching, so prediction time Coming up next. The NFL season is here and fanduel has an offer you don't want to miss right now. New customers can bet just four $5 and get 300 in bonus bets back if you win. That's right, Pick a bet, put down five bucks and if it hits, you'll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love betting on game day. I love, you know, getting, getting an itch and getting a feeling and then hopping on it and making a bet. 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- [20:58]
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- [21:15]
Landon McCool
Welcome back to the Locked on Cowboys podcast and it is time to talk about predictions. Guys, you know, look, here's the thing. If you look at the entry list, it is not heartening. It is incredibly long. It is incredibly deep. And, and there's lots of different folks on there with a lot of different stuff. And, and I think that, you know, we should Break that down a little bit because it has just been kind of a roller coaster trying to follow this thing. First of all, there's some interesting names that are on here that have entered the 21 day return period and we talked about these guys a little bit. Kaylin Carson being one of them. He had a knee injury that has kind of just lingered a little bit. The timeline of things got a little bit murky from what we understand. But it sounds like he's practiced fully these last few few days. The other more interesting one is Jonathan Mingo who, who entered his 21 day practice period as well. But he, after practicing yesterday, he was a DNP today. So I'm sorry, yesterday. So I'm interested to see exactly what the situation with him is because you know, whenever you see that kind of situation where he's a day on and then a day off, does that mean that there was a setback? Is that part of the plan? It does seem a little odd to kind of open up the 21 day period, go through a practice and then pull them back for, for a scheduled reason. It feels like maybe something got re aggravated or there was a bad reaction to the practice. You know we're kind of waiting for more information there and on top of that we, we've heard Tyler Guyton, if it feels like is going to be back this week, it sounds like he may have cleared his the concussion protocol. He was a full participant on Thursday's practice which is a good sign for him playing. The Cowboys obviously got what they needed out of Nate Thomas who performed admirably but it's going to be nice to get him back. Tyler Smith is a guy that we also talked about right. Having the, the tendonitis in his knee was a game time decision last week. I mean even I think was dressed out but just was an emergency backup. Sounds like they were trying to be cautious there and, and it worked out to their advantage. Hopefully he looks sounds like he will be back this week. You know, looking at the rest of the list. Donovan Wilson was another guy that was injured, had an elbow and a knee situation. He did not practice on Wednesday, he did practice on Thursday. So that that gives you a little bit of more hope that maybe he's going to be out there if you need him. I, I think Marquis Bell is clearly the guy that is going to be taking over for him if he cann Miles Sanders was actually another guy who was limited knee and ankle. He was hurt last week. They tried him out on Wednesday and then he, he was practicing on a limited basis and then didn't practice again on Thursday. So that could open things up for another week of Jaden Blue coming in and being the, the sort of primary backup running back to, to Williams whenever he needs a spell. So the, that, that's an interesting thing to note. And then finally, I guess the last thing I kind of wanted to, to bring up here was Marshawn Nealon, a guy that missed last week. It appears that he is making his way towards potentially playing. He was limited the last two, two days. I, I think that, you know, we'll see if he practices today on Friday, but if, if he does, I, I would imagine that he's likely going to play in this game. They're probably going to need him a little bit more since they're not going to have someone like Sanborn. You need, you need all the help you can help have on the AS run defenders on the defensive side. Obviously Sam Borden's a linebacker, but I think, you know, as far as his value, it's more in the run game than in the past game. So lots of injuries, lots of things to kind of work through there. And then on the Panther side of things, you know, Taylor Mouton was the guy that we talked about. He's dealing with an elbow injury. He's their long term, long term starting right tackle. We'll see if he's, if he's able to make it. He wasn't able to make it last year. Chuba Hubbard again we talked about, was out previously with the calf injury. That's what, what allowed Rico to kind of break it open for 27 for. I'm sorry, it was 220something yards I think if I remember correctly. So you know, that's. Even if he's out, obviously we're going to get a face full of angry Rico. And then a, a Caleb, uh, Evans was another kind of young corner. I mean like we mentioned, they play a ton of nickel and dime stuff, so them being down one of their kind of better corners, Mike Jackson was another one who, who did practice. So it does look like he's going to play, but they're a little bit banged up in the corner rooms, so. So you know, they're, but they're. A couple other guys are going to play and then last guy is Jalen Coker who they've been missing for quite a while. They were really super excited about coming into the season. Had a great preseason. It looks like he is a full go. We'll see if he actually dresses up for this week. Prediction time. I mean, just keeping all this in mind, I'm gonna pick the Cowboys to win 28 to 21. I just think that they have, you know, earned the benefit of a doubt at this point and, you know, maybe they're gonna let me down. But I think that this, even though this is exactly the kind of game that I would label as a trap game, I would say you got to worry about this game. I just feel like this Cowboys team might be a little bit different and maybe, maybe I'm going to be completely let down. Maybe we'll see the signs of the sluggish start stuff that we've seen with this team in the past, but it feels like Schottenheimer has kind of figured something out with this team on getting them up for these, you know, early slot east coast games, which they've traditionally struggled to kind of get up for. And I think the Cowboys are going to just kind of grab hold of this game early and control it. It may not be a huge blowout, but I think controlling it start to finish is a good way to win a road game. And I, and I think the Cowboys likely are going to figured this out early and, and, and just, you know, use. Use Dak Prescott to score and use Javante Williams in the run game to kind of finish this out and strangle this game out. Cowboys are more talented teams, so I'm picking them again. 28 to 21, I think is what I said. Yeah. So there you go, Marcus. I hope you're happy. I. I have fulfilled our obligations for this show. Thank you for making the Locked On Cowboys your first listen of the day. The NFL season is finally here for series, so 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 day, while Tony Wiggins takes you to the barber shop for the smoothest breakdowns to the end of the day. Find Locked on NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Thank you guys. And go Cowboys. And we'll. We'll see you. Be right back here to review the game on Sunday night. We'll see you then.
- [29:05]
Tyler Rowland
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- [29:16]
Landon McCool
Was it the bun, was it the.
- [29:18]
Tyler Rowland
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- [29:35]
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- [29:51]
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