GBag Nation
2nd hour of the G-Bag Nation: Coach Mike McCarthy's Presser; NFL News of the Day; Texas Rangers TV Voice Dave Raymond joins the Nation to recap the Rangers Season
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So follow Baseball's and Boring in the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. [MUSIC PLAYING] This podcast is brought to you by Men's Tea Clinic. Men's Tea Clinic is the team I trust with my total wellness optimization, and so should you. 5DFW locations with North Frisco, Eldorado Parkway at Dallas, North Tolway, now open. Call 972 go men's tea or visit mensteclinic.com. Hey, bodies. It's our number two of the GBAG nation here on 1053. The fan, it's time now for the Mike McCarthy Press Conference up there at the Ford Center at the Star, brought to you by your North Texas Ford dealers. Ford is the best. In Texas. Amongst your Cowboys news today, Tank Lawrence, multi-week injury, brought us as guys say it's the L-word. Liz Frank. Liz Frank can be tough. No. Is that like a hairline fracture in your foot? No, that's a bone in your foot, the Liz Frank bone. OK, so we'll hope for the best on that. And then what do you know about my comparisons right now, Brian? They're talking about after the buy on that one. That you're going to miss two games and then you're going to go buy. And then so you'll be back hopefully for San Francisco. Little high ankle situation going on for him. So that's three, four weeks or so before you're able to get back after it. That's a tough break for the Cowboys. I mean, the good news is how much worse could the defense actually be? And we're about to find out. We're going to find out. Hopefully, Marcia Nealon can step up here. Carl Lawson, we'll see if they look for other moves. And I know as sonoretic, that thing's gotten ugly with the Jets. And I know a lot of cowboy fans. I saw Chil clear and sell for where we're starting. Well, not anymore. Now we should DLLS, but put out, go straight for him. The issue with the sonoretic is you got to give him a contract. Yeah. And I don't think the Cowboys are probably willing to do that when they're about to pay Michael Parsons. Gang of seven gave me three practice squad guys. You can go poach. So what maybe at what time 440 today, what I got? Yeah, 440 crushes corner. Nice. We want to go shopping for some future Cowboys, some replacement. Yeah, I got I got three guys. I got three guys that my gang of seven gave me. You bring your best three. I'll bring mine. Yeah, these eaters again. All eaters. All eaters. Let them eat, man. They need to. I love it. Got to get that defensive line, getting after it. OK, speaking of linemen, I know the Cowboys didn't have the best off season. But they did one thing that I think smart championship organizations consistently do. And that is we'll check draft offensive lineman. Well, they draft it offensive lineman. And what else did they do with offensive lineman? What else did they do? They led two starters. Oh, they let be honest. Walk. Yes. And tyrants Smith and tyrants Smith, which I was surprised they did that. I was surprised too. You know, I thought there's a motion there. If you wanted to go for championship, your best bet was that tyrants Smith's pass pro and staying healthy would allow Dak to operate from a clean pocket. You know, how he cooks when he does that. And maybe, you know, one of the reasons scoring is down this year, or their offensive efficiency is down as they let tyrants Smith go. But as a sports illustrated points out here in this article, this is a Kobe skiller. About 10 hours ago, Cowboys fans should be happy. You didn't resign this future Hall of Famer actually going into yesterday's disastrous week for matchup against Denver in which the Jets somehow lost 10 to nine. And I no longer think Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback, by the way. I can watch quite a bit of that yesterday. Gee, just doesn't have the quickness. It's kind of like Russell Wilson, where you're like, he needed to be able to get set and throw. And now he's like trying to get and throwing off angle just way too much for his old bones to, to, to be able to be, you know, explosive like he was. I mean, that was bad. And we saw quite a few of those games late in his Packers career, especially in the playoffs. So maybe it shouldn't be a surprise, but I was holding out that Rogers could be good. But maybe one of the reasons he's not is the play of Tyron Smith. Going into the game, he'd allowed three sacks, fourth worst in the league. Also committed for drive stalling penalties, which ranked ninth worst. Like our guy Tyron is certifiably bad at this point. He allowed only two sacks through 13 games last season, suggesting there's a chance he might have performed better had he stayed with the Dallas this season. And, you know, throughout his career with the Cowboys, Smith had just three seasons where he gave up more than three sacks and two additional seasons where he allowed exactly three sacks, which is incredible out there at, at left tackle. But he is now approaching 34 years old and perhaps, you know, a little long in the tooth, all those injuries have finally caught up to big 77 and you hate to see it, but, you know, on that, on that same note, heck of a job by the Cowboys avoiding it. Having that guy play for you. We do have Texas Rangers keep them or take them to a nonkill shelter coming up at four o'clock and we will recap everything that happened this season and take a look at key free agents. Okay. Cowboys are one and a half point dogs to the Steelers guys as we start to get our first look and our first thoughts on this game. Of course, Brian's going to break down the film Wednesday and Thursday. I'm not sure what to expect, but I do strongly believe that the Cowboys are in the bottom third of the league and I would imagine the Steelers are in the top half. So I'd say that's fairly accurate. I think the Cowboys are probably going to struggle to score and stop a very focused Steelers running game like, you know, how Mike Tomlin keeps making the playoffs and the bad quarterback play, it's paying attention a lot to the opposition where they're weak and coming up with a game plan to exploit that. So, you know, I don't at this point, I don't foresee myself picking a Cowboys victory when we get to our football Friday going in starting the week. What do you guys thoughts on it? I feel the exact same way. I certainly feel like the under is going to hit in this game, whatever that is going to be. I don't imagine either team scoring much more than 20 points, 20 points probably win the edge of the football game, but I think the threat of Justin Fields on the ground is for real. He's not a great quarterback. They, I mean, they're not pushing the ball down the field. There's not much explosive passing plays to speak of. They're rushing attack. I mean, Courderall Patterson now in the mix there and we'll hear some quotes from some Colts players in regards to the Steelers who they beat yesterday. So you'll now have Steelers off their first loss of the season, Cowboys trying to figure things out without tank and Micah, I would feel, I would feel strong the Steelers can find a way to win this one. So the one thing is the Steelers offensive line is also completely decimated. They lost another starter today. They did. James Daniels, their starting guard is now out for the season. So their rookie offensive tackle, Troy Fontenue, who they draft out of Washington is also done for the season. So they've got a whole side of their offensive line that's completely banged up. So you've got your two best ends out. That kind of matches up, but I, I mean, I'm really, I don't know how the Cowboys plan to block TJ Watt. I mean, Terrence Steele deserves all the praise in the world. He was fantastic against Brian Burns. Maybe he does end up having a good game against TJ Watt. Uh, I think he's going to absolutely eat Gaiton's lunch, the majority of the game. I think he's going to, even if Gaiton has some success, TJ watch is so IQ smart, he'll find ways to get Gaiton off balance, whether he needs to rush inside outside the hand fighting. He's going to be able to find a way to win there. Their defense is really good. I'm worried about the Cowboys ability to have any type of serious offensive production. You know the running game's been a challenge, but Justin feels like your best trade is he turns the football over. I mean, the fumble he had yesterday where he's running around in the backfield for 20 yards and he tries to go down, but he's not touched and he ends up fumbling. I mean, that's like, what, what are you doing that NFL quarterback doesn't do that. So at times he's putting the offense on his back and he's having some beautiful balls to George Pickens down the sideline and then he'll run in the red area. The running element of him is certainly what terrifies you, but you got a quarterback that will turn the football over. Maybe you can find a way to give yourself some short fields and create some opportunities offensively that way. All righty. G back nation here at eight seven seven eight eight one one Oh five three. We're just hanging out with you. If you have any questions or thoughts, the truck wreck.com fan text is open for you. We're standing by for the Mike McCarthy press conference. Yeah, three, three six wants to know if DeMone Clark can't grasp the linebacker position. Could they use his athleticism at edge, Brian? That's an impromptu ask Brian anything. Yeah, I think actually, if you want to know your best pass rusher for those linebacker guys, and by the way, the Mets just won game one. So that puts them into the postseason puts the Mets into the postseason. But yeah, your best linebacker rusher is over show when you, when you, when you look at how I think to me, the there's going to need to be some ways Mike's going to have to adjust. We talk about double agap blitz. He tried last week to bring Lewis off the edge on a slot blitz. So you're going to probably see more of those types of things. My gut feeling is last year at Notre Dame, you watched the Notre Dame film. Leah Fal had three sacks. So he's going to have to come with some creative ways to, to bring some pressure. But I don't think it's going to be move Clark. I think it's going to be from depth and try and blitz you that way and see if he can make things happen. All righty. What reasons do you have for optimism here after the first four games sitting at two and two second place in the division, blogging the boys has put some stuff together here. I'm sorry, Dallas Cowboys.com's Kyle Yeoman's put this together. Five reasons to be optimistic after the first month. And you know, I think right now you're hoping to find enough young players that along with your core stars, you can imagine that when these guys are in years three, four, five that, you know, they can be the, the foundation of a great football team. And number five is the steady play of Cooper BB at the quarter point, checking in, Brian, what would you say about the, the rookie out of K state? I would say that if you look at the offensive line, the way it's currently configured in the way that they're playing right now, I would say, if I had to power rank them, Smith, BB Martin, steel and Guy, that's how I would rank the five linemen. And I have BB over Martin right now, Martin's looking very mortal right now as a player. But his, the bar for him is so high that you're starting to see pressure. You're starting to see some missed blocks, you're starting to seem get a little overpowered. And so, but BB has done a really, really nice job. Now last week against Lawrence, they double teamed the heck out of Lawrence in that football game. And that's what they had to do. But that left guy now by himself there at the left tackle spot for a lot of single blocks. But I think BB's done a really nice job when it comes to that, that's when they do run the football, they do have some good plays in the middle. It's usually because of BB and then also say a Smith or Martin being able to like double team in order to let the ball cut back. So he's done a really, really nice job out of the five starters. Only Tyler Smith has a lower pressure percentage on the 162 pass blocking snaps that Cooper BB has been in it at four point three percent. So that's freaking outstanding. I asked on X last night, how much better would the Cowboys be if Derek Henry was your running back? You know, I think they'd be, I don't know, maybe their offense would be 10, 15% better. But you know, I, the conversation turned into a lot of tollos out there about the Cowboys offensive line and a lot of criticism for Terrence Steele and some suggesting it should be Tyler Smith at left tackle and guite knit right tackle BB at the center as your offensive line of the future. What would you guys think about that? You know, as the future, now they've got seal under contract, but I could see maybe down the line with guite and having played right tackle at Oklahoma, you know, this, this year's draft glass for some reason to tackle falls to you. You really want to do that. You really want to strengthen that group. I think that's the way you could improve there if you wanted to. But honestly, I think that the offensive lines played pretty damn well through the first four weeks of the season. I've been impressed and to your question about Henry, I think the offensive line run blocking is what's really impressed me. And I think they found something with these combo blocks inside. Yeah, Dallas is never going to be able to run the ball on the edge with the way it currently is unless it's a jet sweep or they, you know, toss it to, you know, to, you know, get turpin in there or something like that or CD. It's the only way everything is going to break behind the center. So that's where you need these combination blocks with the Martins and the Smiths and then the backs being able to, after investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch, keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon AT&T at tmobile.com/keepandswitch. Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90 post days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required card has no cash access and expires in six months. Post season baseball is here and it is the absolute best time of the year. I'm Rod Bradford of baseballs and boring and we're going to have you covered every step of the way with instant reactions from players and coaches and managers and fans and reporters and everybody else who is immersed in this awesomeness and all the craziness that comes with October baseball. So follow baseballs and boring in the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's up to Mike McCarthy at the Ford Center at the Star. The unfortunate part of our game, definitely too tough for those two guys, me and our football team and especially being in the same position. So I think all that is the obvious part of the challenge. But this is what this game is all about, this is what this league is all about. It takes a lot of players to win in this league, week in and week out. So it creates a great opportunity for others and that's really our approach. Obviously we're going to have to make some roster adjustments, we're still kind of working through that, it's part of reason why I was running a little late here, just to have a personnel meeting and things after some of the player meetings we had today. So we'll make those adjustments as the week goes on, but at the end of the day it's our job as coaches to make sure we've got a heck of a game playing for our players to go to Pittsburgh and to get the win. You and other coaches talk about next man up in this situation, but again when you're talking about the magnitude of those players isn't it more of a collective, everyone just has to be more disciplined and do what you're asking you. You've answered your question, I think, or was that opinion? No, it was a question. No, that's it, I mean it's not like we're going to take one player and put them in and give them the exact same responsibility and reps that Micah had or with the law had. So it's going to be a combination of things and you let the game plan bring out the light because it's very important when you have the 49 players up on the game Sunday that everybody contributes. Clarence Hill, our city of Dallas, just for housekeeping, can you understand what are the exact injuries, the delaw list, Frank, and what is your timeline or timeline you've been told? Well I know delaw is, whatever you want to call it, they've been calling the midfoot spraying, some people use this, Frank, obviously there's different categories and so forth. It's going to be multiple weeks, so I think clearly we'll get past the Bible, we'll see where we are. What are you going on, Aaron? We're still working through that. Like I said, just came from a personnel meeting. And Parsons, it is just highly bomb, he's in a boot, it's an ankle sprained and so we'll see how that goes but he'll be challenged to make it this week. Mike, we're preparing to play with Micah. Mike Todd, who are the ESPN? Are there any parallels to draw of the significance of these guys and who they are to losing deck a couple of years ago to the thumb and I'm sure we're coming in and all that. I think it's obvious, I mean you've got positions that carry a little more responsibility on your football team, pass, rush, or corner, tackles and quarterbacks and those things because it does adjust the way you have to have the game plan. That's definitely the reality of it but once again, this is our game. This is part of the challenges of our league and it gives others a great opportunity. It's not just going to be one guy or two guys, we're going to have other guys step up. What have you liked what Neilan has done in the first month of this year? I really like when Marshall is just the way he's reacted to everything. Every time we get more responsibility, he just goes about it with the right attitude and great energy. He's a bowling ball full of butcher knives type player. We've cranked up his responsibility on special teams and he's done a good job. I mean for a young player that has been, I mean you look at our young offensive lineman they're playing one position and they'll clearly who they're playing against this week and so forth. We're much on heads. He's had a little more diversity to his job responsibility and I think he's done a hell of a job with it. John Shoder with The Athletic, can you give us any update on Kaylen Carson and Dr. Omblin? Hoping Kaylen could practice Wednesday, we'll see how that goes but he's making progress and the same thing was wrong. I know he's going to be out there with Brett Tamar so I have a better feel for where he's at. Calvin Watkins, that's one of the news. How much of a challenge was that for him just to come in and start that second half? I thought it was huge. I mean I just love the way he reacted and I think it's really reflective of the way he arrived here. I mean he's just a super competitive young man. Just went in there and battled. Obviously he had a big play at the end of the game so I love what he brings to the table. He's super competitive. In practice you see particularly on the look team really challenges our guys so no surprise to us but it's just like anything. You get that opportunity under the big lights and he did a nice job. I've been able to keep cooking gauge with everything. He's a veteran guy obviously he wants to play in those kinds of things. Delmico? Yeah, he's a hard worker, I think it's a really good fit. I think clearly there's an adjustment part that he needed to go through. We needed to go through on his arrival here but he's chomping at the bit. There's no doubt about it and that's who you want. It gives us great healthy competition in the running back room. He brings a lot to the table. Nick Harris, four-star telegram. In your time with Chauncey Goldson there were responsibilities that he's had throughout his time here. What kind of gives you confidence as far as him being able to take your next step as well? I think it's a little bit spinning off of Marshawn's answer. I think Chauncey's done a lot here. He's played a lot of different positions. He's played the three technique all the way out to a wide nine so he's definitely played in and out two different systems. The technique and how he's been asked to play more even techniques, more inside techniques. He's been able to use his length and I like the way he's adjusted to some of the things we're having him do more of in his defensive scheme. Let's not forget what he does on special teams too. He's always been that guy, he's someone that you can put in there as we're a lot of hats since he's been here. This will be a great opportunity for him. It'll be him and Marshawn will probably be two guys that are going to handle a lot of the responsibility that these injuries have created so I love what Chauncey's been giving us. You've talked a lot about what September football is and all that entails as the calendar flipped October. What do you look for in the second phase, the second month of the season as you progress? I hope we learn from it because we need to be better. I'm talking more in the areas of fundamentals, techniques and so forth. Yes, I think you are who you are after four games. We've done the deep analytical dives and it's particularly spent a lot of time on a situation because we've had some out of balance games in our first four but I think the biggest thing that stands out is the critical penalties in situations. That's something that we really need to do a better job of. We're always going to be working on our fundamentals and things like that and want to be better and more areas than others. I think that's always part of the normal progression of an NFL season so you're always working at some degrees or higher than others and that clearly reflects where we are after four weeks but we've got to be better in the penalty areas because we've had way too many third-time penalties, way too many red zone penalties and a couple of two-minute penalties and that obviously affects scoring and it obviously affects the opportunity for the offense. They have to ball more and obviously affects the defense being on the field longer. The unscouted looks, how long does that go into the season before everything kind of becomes? They're not really looking into, I don't think as much as a focus right now because I think everybody is now on tape and you have a direction of who people want to be and how their personnel is being distributed and I think a big part of the unscouted looks is how our teams distributing their personnel because personnel distribution also leads to particularly on offense, ball distribution and where do you think the ball is going, how they get them there, formation tendencies. I think just like anything, history will tell you the more that you do, whether it's formations, motions, the more tendencies you have so you've got to stay on top of it. More personnel groups that you use, we use a lot of personnel groups so we've got to be totally on top of what we're doing out of each and everyone especially in the situational footballs. Kind of a filter that cuts a lot of these things and gives you some clarity on what you're trying to get done and it's no different for your opponent. Gary, what else do you get towards Mike? How much, I know you had the injuries to Lawrence Parsons but how much can the improvement shown in the run defense be carried over to game with Spitzburg in a run heavy offense? Yeah, definitely. I mean it's run defense is about the 11th, you know, the one thing is I thought we were clearly cleaner in our fits, you know, our blocking destruction was better but we have another level to go. We got to get, you know, we got to get the finish, the pursuit finish needs to be cleaner. I think we can get more opportunities on the ball so that's what we're looking to build off of. You know, we understand clearly the job that, you know, we did Thursday night against the Giants but, you know, we need to be better and we will be, you know, challenged there continually throughout the season, we understand that so that's definitely a starting point for us. Kyle Jones, Dallas Cowboys.com, Coach, Massey Smith starting to really play some good football over the last five quarters or so, how has this game evolved over the last few weeks and taken to the next? Yeah, I think you're just seeing Massey getting more confident and comfortable. Those are two things that I see from him each and every day. So, and not only, you know, I think, you know, the production that he's had but just more to consistency, you know, particularly the nose stunt that, you know, he hit two of those nicely in the game and was productive with it. So, so with that needs to come to consistency. But, you know, I definitely see a more confident, Massey Smith. I'm not OC, never been OC. There's a lot of talk about pre-snap motion and where you guys rank in that. Can you just talk about why you're low in that category and that's important part of your offer? Yeah. You know, we've got a great analytics department. You know, I think I've probably seen all the ones you saw and didn't throw out the ones that are good because, you know, that's part of the equation too. But, you know, I think we're really kind of part of what I was talking about earlier. You know, you've got to look at the situation, you know, particularly on offense, you know, because some of our formation, you know, I was talking to John Park about this yesterday, you know, some of our formation tendencies, you know, you've got to factor in, I think, we've been almost 3/4 or 2 minutes, so that, you know, those are screwed a little bit. But yes, you know, as far as the motions, how much motion we want to do, you know, CD utilization and motion, you also, I don't know, you know, one of the things the analytics also shows is just the, you know, the yardage that our receivers cover. You know, our guys are, you know, and that's probably a product of, you know, somebody's 2-minute, you know, an extra 2-minute, you know, 2-minute offense that we've been in more than the norm for 4 games. So yeah, I've looked at all those things clearly aware, you know, the windows and, you know, so I've seen the studies, but also I think our guys do a really good job of taking that data and then making sure all the filters are applied. So our information's accurate, and as Brian and John Hymer and I will continue to visit on it, you know, through today, and that's what tonight's for, and then as we start putting that plan together tomorrow, so those things have all been identified, but I think just like anything, you know, which you do inside, the Y is a big part of it. So yeah, we're clearly aware of our numbers in those areas. And as an offense, do you have to guard against trying to overcome and stay fully in defense or is that what you have to do? No, I think it's, you know, I think it's who you want to be, you know, and then right now we're not playing to the complimentary football that we played last year and really last two years, you know, I felt like the complimentary football really came into, you know, the formula that we were starting to hit in 22 and clearly was evident in 23 and one of the biggest statistics and I made a point of it again today in the team meeting is, you know, our number of plays on the field for our defense from 22 to 23 went down. I think it was nine plays, you know, it was at 15, 55, yeah, or six plays a game. So that's a full game. So when you look at your overall stats in a year, you know, if you're playing six plays less a game, that's a full game less for your defense on the field. So we're not there. We're back to 21 right now. So as far as what our numbers were so that's where, you know, you know, you talk about third down, it's, it's always a two way street with me, you know, when I see the defenses on the field, as long as they've been, I'm also very cognizant of what with the production is on third down on the offense, because our time of possession, we're nowhere even close to where we were last year, you know, that's, that's, that's a big negative for the first four games. Those are the things I spend time on and clearly why, why are those numbers there? And then that's what we're after because, you know, not only do we want to score as many points as we can, but we do not mind going a long way because there's a benefit to keeping our defense off the field. So much about time position is made on running the football. Time of possession is control of football and you know, you can do that in the passing game too. So that's where we're not, you know, that's, that's where after the first four weeks, our complimentary football formula needs to be better. So that's, that's what we're focused on. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. There it is. The Mike McCarthy press conference here on your home of the Cowboys tank had a second opinion. Not much changed as a result multiple week injury and they're getting ready to play on the assumption that Michael Parsons will be out. Brian thinks he's going to miss two games. Come back after the buy. Okay. Uh, coming up next, could we have a few minutes for NFL news of the day, could we be lucky enough for that? And then Dave Raymond's going to join us at 340 to recap the final week of the Ranger season that's coming up next here in the G back nation. Welcome back nation segment here is brought to you by soda. That's state of the art in it's brought you by cars for kids donate today, cars for kids dot org, sponsored by window nation, go to window nation.com and of course, the Frankles life's unpredictable accidents happen. If you are loved ones in an accident due to somebody's negligence, call the Frankles for a free consultation two one four or eight, one seven, three, three, three, 33, 33 jump online to Frankle firm.com Dave Raymond's coming up in a, in a few minutes. We'll talk with him, recap the final week of the Ranger season. Mike McCarthy was asked about Dalvin Cook did not say much. Did he Brian other than he's going to keep working? Yeah, he's just, he likes the way that Dalvin Cook is, continues to work and, you know, there's, you know, you just wonder, uh, Dalvin Cook being the veteran guy and kind of seeing what's going on with the running game. If he's really how patient is he going to be, you know, if, uh, I don't want to play. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely want to play and preferably with the Cowboys, because you're a fierce damn competitor. Nice. Thank you said that everything about him is he's healthy and ready to go and ready to play. So there's nothing holding him back from, uh, you know, but you just wonder and I'll ask you guys this question, do you think they got him on this roster just as an insurance policy? Yes. I believe so. They're probably waiting for an injury to happen and then, you know, put cook in there, but I feel like they don't want to have a bunch of up and down and then, you know, I don't think they want to use up cook until they know they need it, right? Let's see how much time we can buy here because Dalvin's not young, right? Um, yeah, I don't, I don't think they want to bench anybody like you're not going to Rico, yeah, like Zeke would be the guy to bench, but I don't know that they want to make that type of move just because they have so much difference for them. Yeah. It's one of those deals and they, they, they know that this move isn't going to absolutely be a game changer for them. You know, it might be a slight upgrade. I kind of looking at it as maybe giving an opportunity to see if something can be different. Now they, they are using Rico Dattle. There's no question about that. Right. All of a sudden, you know, if, if you tell me that I could get a better version of what I thought I was going to get with Zeke, I'm, I'm putting, I'm putting Dalvin cook out there and giving it a go. And if he's not good enough, then just move on from him and go get somebody else. I mean, and an organization that was obsessed with winning, you know, if see why I was running that place, then I'm sure we would have seen it already. You know, this is what bothers me and, and I, and I, I hear this way too much with that crew is that they say there are 24 seven personnel department and I really wonder if they're not. I mean, you know, if they are, because to me, they're very much a January to April personnel department, you know, that's when we do draft season stuff, you know, when, when do you, you know, if you're, if you're, if you're constantly kind of like, if you're not very good at something, to me, just keep tinkering with it, you know, kind of go for it a little bit. Yeah, you know, but if they're just using Dalvin Cook as a insurance policy, he, he might not be here much longer than, you know, other teams are going to have needs. Well, yeah. The teams will have needs. And he, and he's got no loyalty to you if you haven't done anything to, to elevate him and show him you care about it. They're stubborn. I think there was a lot of talk about running back. They want to try and show you running backs just fine. Yeah. We like our guys. Dave Raymond, TV voice of your Rangers joins us will recap the final week of the season and more. Look forward to the winter. That's next year on your home of the champs for now one Oh five, three, the fan. Thank you very much. Lucius. Usually we do crusties corner right here. That's going to happen at four 40 this afternoon get Brian's Cowboys Monday thoughts here coming up in one hour is a friend Dave Raymond from Rangers TV joins us now here on your home with the Rangers. 105 through the fan. Good afternoon. Dave, how the heck are you? I'm great. It's a day off and we get incredible baseball. I know you guys have been busy with some football stuff and the weekly press conference and all that we just we just wrapped up one incredible game. Oh, no, we were watching it. We're watching it. We're watching it. Oh, that was incredible. If your Mets and Braves did you have a handshake shake deal going into to game one and now as the match you're you're thinking, we're going to let the Braves win. Is that a thing? I we talked about this yesterday after our game when we were on the bus making our way back home and make sense, right? Absolutely. You'd want to do that. Hey, let's just make sure we split this thing and we're both in and no hard feelings, but that's just it. They hate each other. Yeah. They have hard feelings that those two teams, there's no way those two teams would enter an agreement like that. That'd be like the Rangers and the Astros doing that and the Rangers would have an interest in winning and getting to the postseason. And that would be a strong interest of theirs, but they might have a stronger interest in just keeping use and out. I mean, you know what I mean? It's like sometimes those relationships are built that way and I kind of feel like these two teams are there. What if they had a deal in the Mets are about to crawfish on it? Wouldn't that be so? Oh, I'm here for the Aladrama baseball or ball. This is awesome, this is this is a lot of fun. I'm I'm looking forward to the Rangers getting back into the postseason run next year. I mean, this year obviously did not go the way that any of us wanted to. You had a front row seat for most of this. It felt just snake bitten with all the injuries, but as you reflect back on the 2024 Rangers, what are some of the things that stand out and then provides you optimism going into 2025? Well, I think you're right, Zach, I mean, it just never got off the ground, and I don't it's hard to it's hard to figure why and as boats just said the other day, he held out hope all the way till the day they were eliminated that they might just get hot that lineup might just take off and it could happen. We've no doubt seen those types of things in the past and baseball. So, you know, you're never really out of it and tell the math says you are, but yeah, this year injury is obviously a big part of it. I think that the things that give you hope and you try not to get too far into the weeds in September and trying to read too much into what you see in September because it is just like spring training and not just like, but you have to be very careful with it. At the same time, man, what we saw from White Langford from start to finish, just the progression from day one till the end of the season was pretty amazing offensively because it was a rough start and that could bury a young player, but he stayed with it and it really seems like he figured a lot of things out. It's nothing else. The process of going through that is going to have great value for him over the rest of his career because he faced some baseball demons there this summer. That was pretty ugly for a while and he found his way out of it. So, I think that's huge. I think the way Nathaniel Lowe finished the year gives you a lot of optimism because there were some pretty solid questions there for a minute as to what would the Rangers do about first base next year and he helped alleviate that. I think you have to feel comfortable that Lowe is going to be okay again when you look back at last year and the injuries at spring training caused him a late start, which got him behind the eight ball and he started to do things that weren't helpful to his game and next thing you know, he's midway through the season struggling. Well, he figured it out and he got it back on track. So, I think things like that give you optimism and this is a weird one for me, but Adole Scarcea pulling up Lane the other day at first base with the knee bothering him and not playing the final game of the season. You know, weird way for me gives me optimism because I could not figure out what was going on with him all year. It was the only way I can explain it is it was breaking my heart because he wasn't going after balls the way he used to. He wasn't firing back into the infield like he used to and I thought it's like the light just went out. What happened? And the reality is he was hurt he was playing on a bum knee all year that the knee that caused him to miss the last couple of games of the World Series last year and so now we all know it it's hurt just a little bit more. He told me yesterday after the game he's getting it scanned today and my hope is that there's a little something they can do, clean it out, maybe you'll feel better because if you can get Garcia back to old Adole Scarcea levels and then like we're talking about with you know, low and Langford and some others, you can see this offense getting back in gear and I think the pitching has all kinds of upside to it based on what we saw at the end of the season. What were some of the pros and cons you're one working with Basky? Man, it's all pros, all pros, that guy, the only con is that he relies on me sometimes for things like, what time does the bus leave? You know, little, little simple decisions that quite frankly I rely on everybody else for that. I don't know, I don't know when the bus leaves and I messed up so many of his days this summer where I know it's a three o'clock bus, Mike, I know I'll see you down there and then the two of us ding dongs will be sitting on an empty bus for 30 minutes, I guess it was a three 30 bus, Mike, my bad, and so that's the only con is normally I've got somebody holding my hand and leading me around, but Mike's not going to be that guy and I'm not a good one to do that for Mike. Dave, I'm going to guarantee you that he didn't pay for one meal that you guys have. I'm just going to, I'm just going to say you're going to be nice about this, I'm guaranteed he didn't pay for one meal. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, yeah, okay, well, how about this? He brought in his, his, his famous carrot cake, yeah, a little bit after Easter. He brought in a, he told me, he taught me all about the concept of a dump cake. I'd never heard of that, but he made one and brought in. You can go on YouTube and get all that Dave, you know what I'm saying? Well, you're, yeah, I suppose you're right, but that's his, that's his love language, man. It is, yeah, it is. And treats for guys, he's, but you know what, man, he's just fun. He's just fun. He's enthusiastic. He's like a big puppy dog and he's, you know, he's got a keen eye and a clever way of looking at things and he just, it's a, it was a really fresh perspective. I, I thoroughly enjoyed every night I spent with him there at the ballpark. Dave, the, I'll, I'll give you a serious baseball question. I think with all the injuries that, you know, that they had to deal with, but then we saw some of the pitchers, the grom and others come back rocker, that, that had to give you a little bit of hope of what's going on with that staff though this year, right, or next year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. You know, much like the Wyatt Langford situation, I think Jack Lighter and you know, it's not like Jack got to be up here from the start of the year till the end and the way Langford did, but we got a taste of him really early in Detroit and then he got some other opportunities and each time we saw, he learned stuff. He and I talked about it several times, little things that he was learning along the way. And it's, it's really valuable. His stuff clearly is as good as anybody's. I mean, you're talking about a guy who can throw a hundred and he's got a good breaking ball. And so if there, it's just a matter of him figuring out how to use it. And so that's, that's something that's going to come and even next year, there might be some bumps now and again, but I think we're going to see a lot of him and I think he's going to be really good. And Lord knows what we saw from Rocker when, when that is, when he's got his primary two pitches working, that hard curveball and the fastball once and again, he's coming off Tommy John trying to get some of the feel back for some of these things. But my expectation would be that that will be back next year in, in full bloom. He's, he's elite. I mean, that stuff is crazy good. And with his poise and just his personality there, I think he brings a lot. I mean, I was really struck at how unusual he seemed to, to be, he just, he's so calm. And he walked in a room and he commands a room. I mean, what was the young guy on the team, even some of the veterans said at one point they're like, Hey, why are we all so intimidated by him? And so then they started to tease him a little bit and come up with some names and this sort of stuff. But I even the veterans held him in a certain esteem when he'd walk in a room. I think that's, I just think that's brilliant. You're talking about a guy who's a, you know, real alpha male out there on the mound. So that's exciting. I think they're going to work really hard to get of all the back and he'll be huge. Obviously de Grom's going to be a big deal and the, and the sleeper and all this, the guy who continues to slide under everybody's radar and maybe, maybe the best of all of them is Cody Bradford. Absolutely. And that guy is smooth. Yes. I really love watching him fit. So there's, I think there's a ton of optimism on that rotation. The last thing I wanted to ask you about Dave, since you have a unique perspective on it, but that last series in Oakland and as you've now had some time to reflect your thoughts on how that all went down, yeah, it's still, it's still a source of some, some sadness and frustration, you know, 9,000 games in Oakland A's history and that's gone. It'll remain in record books and will remain in a lot of memories in that Bay Area. But I don't, I don't think people appreciated how important a franchise that the Oakland days are. And they've had so much great history, given us so many colorful characters and been a part of post seasons and that run they had in the 70s and none of us were, you know, really cogent baseball fans at that time, 72, 73, 74. I was just a weed little fell on diapers, but, but, you know, that, that's one of the great dynasties of all time. Maybe the Yankees can claim to have won at least three straight world series. No other teams ever done that. Yeah. Anyway, it's just, and it, to me the sadness is that it's, you're, you're talking about a trust, right? You're talking about, it's not a business that just, it happens to be in a city. It's a thing that's a part of a city. It's a place where people go to share and experience things together. And it just seems so wrong to take that out of a city like that unnecessarily. There are times when you have to do stuff like that. This was unnecessary in my mind. There are a lot of people at fault in this, but at the end of the day, it did not have to happen. That's just, that's just the fact of the matter. It didn't have to happen like this. And it's, it's heartbreaking. Just another way the European model of relegation and promotion is better because if your team goes bad, you just get demoted, you know, you don't have to leave. You know, I'm talking about, listen, Gavin, I'm with you on that. And there was a, there was a guy from, from, I don't know if he was from London or where he was from. He was writing for the New York Times, but he came out and he was baffled by this. So here is from the New York Times going on, these clubhouse is asking these questions like, this doesn't happen where I'm from. I don't understand what's all your culture that you'll let a billionaire take these things from cities. It's just not right. It is. It is. Appreciate you so much, Dave, have a great winter and we'll catch you up with you real soon. Talk some Rangers baseball. Right on. Thanks guys. He's better over here. AT&T customers switching to T-Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free, all on America's largest 5G network. Visit T-Mobile.com/carrierfreedom to switch today. Pay off up to $650 via virtual prepaid mastercard in 15 days, free phone up to $830 via 24 monthly bill credits plus tax, qualifying, porting, trading, service and go 5G next and credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits to credit, stop and balance and required finance agreements do post-season baseball is here and it is the absolute best time of the year. I'm Rod Bradford of baseballs and boring and we're going to have you covered every step of the way with instant reactions from players and coaches and managers and fans and reporters and everybody else who is immersed in this awesomeness and all the craziness that comes with October baseball. So follow baseball as I'm boring in the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. [MUSIC PLAYING]