The Cowboys come off their bye week with a matchup in San Francisco up next. NFL insider Michael Lombardi joined the GBag Nation to discuss that matchup, what's gone wrong in the Bay this season, if there's any fire to the smoke about Bill Belichick wanting to coach the Cowboys, and more.
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00:00a former NFL executive, the best man at Brian's wedding, you'll hear him on the GM shuffle
00:20podcast. It's the great Michael Lombardi here with you on the fan. And a good afternoon,
00:25sir. How the heck are you? I'm doing great. Thank you. How are you guys? You recovered
00:29everything good. That storm was a bad one last week. Yeah. Yeah. We've had some storms.
00:34We've had some disappointing Cowboys football. A big question here this week, sir, is a Niners.
00:42One of your former teams kind of vulnerable. Are they down enough? The Cowboys could actually
00:47beat them. Oh, I think it'll be a close game. Yeah. I mean, look, the Niners have really
00:51struggled that they went from being one of the most explosive offenses when they were
00:55in base personnel with McCaffrey, Iuke, Kittle, Debo, you know, and then you sprinkle in,
01:02you know, Jennings and whomever else they want to put on the field. They were fast and
01:06now they're slow as can be. They have no explosiveness. And if they can't get the run game going,
01:12which they should be able to against Dallas, you know, it makes it really hard.
01:15I thought pretty played one of his worst games going back to when he played against Baltimore
01:18at home on, I think it was Thanksgiving night. You know, that was the time he played poorly.
01:23This is a team that is typical of teams that go to the Superbowl and lose. They have a
01:29lot of injuries. They don't have the same drive, the same motivation that they had.
01:33I think they're tired. And I think yesterday they really were never in that game. It might
01:38have been 14 to 12, but the Kansas City Chiefs defense was just way too superior to the 49er
01:45offense. So look, this is against two teams that used to be really good, but aren't as
01:49good anymore.
01:50What are some of the issues you've been seeing with the Cowboys? A lot was made with Troy
01:54Aikman's comments about the route running at receiver. Mike McCarthy said, I don't really
01:59agree with the choice of words there from Troy, but what are some of the things out
02:04of the bi-week? I mean, can you even do much in the bi-week to correct all their problems?
02:07Well, you shouldn't be able to do a lot. You got to self-scout the hell out of it, right?
02:11You got to sit down in a room and say, why are we 31st at red zone offense? Why are we
02:1531st at red zone defense? I mean, that's the number one thing they got to do. Forget about
02:19the route runner. They got to figure out how to get the ball in the end zone and keep
02:22the other team from getting it in the end zone. That's the way you win games.
02:25Look, everybody's got an opinion on what's wrong with the Cowboys. I said it last offseason,
02:30everybody laughed at me. I don't think they're as talented as the media has made them out
02:33to be. They've got some really talented players, but they've got some huge concerns in both
02:38lines, especially a defensive tackle. They're not very big at linebacker. People can run
02:42the football. Look, you know, Mike Zimmer didn't become a bad coach overnight, right?
02:47They can coach. They know what they're doing. They just can't seem to get it with the personnel.
02:51You know, three things happen to a football team. And, you know, I've said this and I
02:55wrote about it in Gridiron Genius. Football teams are like going to the veterinarian.
03:01They don't talk to you. You have to have systems in place to diagnose what's wrong. Just like
03:06a vet does. You bring your dog to the vet, the dog doesn't tell the vet what ails them.
03:10The vet figures it out. It's the same thing with football teams. It's either players,
03:13coaches or schemes, right? And I really think as much heat as Mike McCarthy gets, his schemes
03:18are good, right? And I think he coaches well offensively, but I just don't know if they
03:24have enough. And especially when they have a clutch, they don't have a running game,
03:27which kills them. You know, look, Goff threw the ball 25 times. Goff's on this incredible
03:32three-game streak where he's not thrown any completions. He hasn't thrown the ball more
03:35than 25 times in a game because they can balance it. Look, I know this. You can't run the football
03:40and score points. I get that, right? But what the running game does for you is control
03:45the game. You get control of the football game when you can run it. And then it allows
03:49you to make big plays down the field in terms of play-action pass. The Cowboys have no running
03:54game. They never are going to be in control of the game, ever. And because they can't
03:58run the ball effectively, they don't have as much explosiveness down the field. Those
04:02are two things that go hand in hand. So look, I think that's the problem offensively and
04:07defensively. I think it's really a talent issue. They have no tackles. Their corner
04:11situation isn't as good as it's been. And when they can't play from in front, right?
04:15Okay. So last year they led the National Football League in 124-point differential at halftime.
04:20Most important stat in all of football. First-half point differential. They were number one in that
04:24category. This year they're behind in a half. So teams can keep running the ball. Last year
04:28they ran the ball on the Cowboys. Just nobody paid attention to it. In the five losses,
04:32they gave up massive amount of run yards in those games because they didn't have to,
04:36they weren't playing from ahead.