The Dumb Zone FREE - DZ 11-18-25 PREVIEW | The Cowboys roll in Vegas

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

Subscribe to the show to hear today's episode! DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneThe Cowboys defense actually looked serviceable, George Pickens is a monster, but... it was the Raiders ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hey now, what you were about to hear is a free preview of one of this week's premium episodes of The Dumb Zone. If you would like to hear this program in full, along with the full archive, ah, shit. If you would like to hear this program in full with the archive of all of our past episodes, you can subscribe at Dumbzone.com. Let's do the George Pickens and CD. As we start the game. And Joe Buck is kind of noticing it. And they're like, hey, those two aren't on the field for the first two plays.

Now big third down. Well, they're not on the field now either. Then we get this Lisa Salter's sideline reports. And there's a key word in here. Yeah, Joe, I was just told by Cowboys PR that the reason that C.D. Lamb and George Pickens were not out on the field. It was not an interim-related situation. It was strictly a coach's decision.

I asked was this punishment of some sort, and I was sold, you'll have to address that with coach, but all we can tell you is that it was not injury-related. It was strictly a coach's decision. So a coach's decision, Lisa, and maybe a message sent to their top two receivers. I think you watch them at times this year. Okay, I'll play Troy in a second. But number one, like that, when she said in the beginning, I thought the key word was told by Cowboys PR.

Like, when is Cowboys PR? ever like quickly go run to you to give you some information this was a public shaming it's like how how can I discipline two guys or a guy who makes 30 million a year and a guy who will next year

you know and not hurt our team yeah because we're now we did this against Vegas and it's a college thing to do you're out the first series you're out the first quarter it's a weird punishment

And it's, you're hurting the rest of the team. But you're publicly shaming these guys. PR is telling the world. We're going to run right to the NBC or to the ESPN booth and tell them, hey, in case you're wondering, they are being nailed to the bench right now by the coach. Now you know. And now the world knows. They did not get this start because of something.

We're not going to tell you what it is. Yeah, I don't know. It's interesting. And I think I'm probably on alert for Shottie doing performative things. I don't know. I can't tell if he's acting or not. He might just be like a guy who acts like a guy who's acting. But my point is just, all I hear him talk about, oh, these guys just love football, the example that CD sets.

That literally can't both be true. Right. That's all bullshit. I hate what I hate when they say it. publicly, he wants his players to hear that he publicly says nothing but good things. And, like, he's made the joke about Pickens. He don't always love Wednesdays, Thursdays.

Right. But he still will talk, boy, that guy just loves football. And I get that both those things can be true, the love football and the you miss meetings thing. But that guy's a great example and a great leader and being late or missing meetings. I don't know, man. I mean, I guess I'd go back to, like, Michael Irvin, or am I being too judgey? because I feel like C.D.'s just had a weird year, man. I feel like there's just been too many things, and maybe he's been banged up,

but the Denver game was so weird after he came back from injury and just being able to watch that game from the stands. There were so many times where he was just walking off the field in series. Like not they're about to punt. He's just, I'm done with this one, and maybe he was subbing out. But I also know C.D. can keep himself in the game when he wants. I heard Dak last night talking about, like, you know, something he love about Flannoy. He doesn't get mad when CD just steals his routes.

Like we'll be coming out of the huddle and CD's like, nah, nah, I'm taking that one. And he just keeps working. And so, I don't know, I just, it's been a weird year for CD. And I don't know if that's a Pickens thing. There's a small part of me of like 90s Cowboys love of I'm like, hell yeah. Like, they're getting rowdy. But you don't want to be saying that on a week of a player passed. the little

the Bash Brother type vibe of them I don't know it's funny that they went out and bawled out like it just feels all like a high school football movie like we're going to punish these big guys but then they just go out there and do whatever they want

Pickens is yelling at shoddy when they decide to punt or excuse me kick a field goal instead of go for it he immediately gets a flag for the exact same thing James and Williams got that game was on by itself last night George Pickens knows that Jameson Williams got that flag.

He did the exact same thing. Intentionally. Of course. He's just fucking waving his dick at Shottie. What are you going to do about any of this? Did you hear? And it's kind of funny, but it's also. You know what? I didn't pull it.

I wonder if you could pull up. Can you pull up YouTube TV to where that point about just because where he, because I swear when he came back with Dak, they were, and yelling at him. each other he was kind of yelling like if that penalty or something like who cares something something like that i don't even know if it's going to be real audible but i remember hearing that anyway i wanted to play this too the is that me or you i'm not playing anything that's uh blake okay i saw his because i think i'm at the touchdown commercial but that's a very risky play you don't gonna play it it's after after he scored and yeah then he goes back and chest bumps that's

capable of chest bumps dad able to step into it this play is so stupid it's just like he looks like he's running out of bounds and then he just does that crazy foot in the ground Yeah. What did he say? Who gets a fuck? It's Dak, too. He comes in hard. So he knew exactly what he was doing.

He's like, who gets a fuck? So what? We're going to do it. And now, Shottie's going to try to pretend like he's looking on his face, tries to tell him something. That's so funny. And then in the post game, Dak was like, yeah, we have a kicker who can make it. See, that's all fun in games when you're playing Vegas and you're running it up.

Right. And then he brought it on back down. He's like, but we got to balance the line. Can these guys win a close slug it out game? You know? They didn't have a chance earlier in the year. Now they do. But they're going to, you know, every team that they play in the next three weeks,

they may have more talent than Kansas City right now. But it's, you know, Detroit and Philadelphia, they're going to be, what, six point dogs? Philly at home Let's guess the line right now I would have guessed that it opened at six But I mean they're four, five and one dude Yeah I was going to say seven and a half

I was going to say more of a four and a half Like over a field goal But trying to suck people in to Opened at four and it is already to three and a half Yeah Basically a push with the home field advantage. Does people get Cowboys drunk, man? Think back to the Romo game.

Remember when the Panthers were like 10 and O or something? Well, there's a reason. God, now it's at three. Wow, okay. Here, though, let me get back. I have something on that, too, why people get Cowboys drunk. So, but, and both of them are Troy Eakman saying something.

So now we play the, This is Lisa Salter's report. That's where we are, right? On C.D. Lamb and George Pickens getting bench. PR told us they're getting bench. Troy Aikman is going to give his opinion on why he thinks. So now Troy Aikman is, I think he's dropping something else that we haven't thought about. To their top two receivers.

I think you watch them at times this year. I think you could question some of the effort that's been given and maybe that's the shot across the bow that Brian Schottenheimer just delivered. See, so I think in retrospect we're saying it wasn't just the effort throughout the year, or maybe it was that plus you went out in Vegas. And how many guys are missing their curfew when they go play Vegas on a Monday night? But isn't it like, wait, are you saying, what are you saying? Like, are they, I think they're getting disciplined for something that happens Sunday night.

I think it was that on top of other things. Shaddy didn't say a lot in the post-game press conference about it, but he did say they were informed today. I just feel like if you're an actual, maybe this isn't how it works, but if you're an actual partier, like that's the night you don't, you're like, okay, they're going to be looking for me to get in trouble here. You know, this is CD and George Pickens. That's true.

Do you feel like they're using a lot of logic and deciding? No, the more I hear about the road world of the Cowboys. But it is interesting that, yeah, Shadi has alluded to him missing meetings and all that. Onside kick punt. Again, there's pickings got lucky on that one. You can hear people yelling, fair catch it, fair catch it on the broadcast call. And they're staring at it. We've been talking about it.

He watches it bounce in front of him, a hard bounce. Now, he's a world-class athlete and was able to corral it. Man, that is very lucky. It didn't bounce off it. Not that Vegas was going to do anything. Let me tell you this. I'd like a word with Nick Sorensen, Captain Sorensen. I'm not putting freaking George Pickens on my hands team.

I don't care if he could catch like anything you throw at him. That's more of a judgment play. You think that's Lipke time? I think that might have been Lipke time. We got Mike if you want. Okay. Yeah, let's bring in Machine as we're continuing to talk about the Cowboy game and football. I didn't know so the deal I guess is just you can punt can you punt an onside kick any time you want

that's what they were indicating yesterday and then uh just for fun well it's kind of crazy because everyone freaks out you know what is this what yeah but it has to land but the fact that you can on site or uh call for a fair catch should negate anybody ever dreaming of using a punter yeah if you have to let it drop? It's a great idea. The Raiders didn't know what they were doing with it. That's a thing. The Raiders had no idea what they were doing with it. The guys did not run past 10 yards. Like, they thought there's some rule where you can't go past the 10 yards before it hits, I think.

Because if you watch the replay, they run to like 10 and they start stopping. Yeah, rather than attacking the ball. I only knew because of the U&T play. Like, could, they could catch it. Yes. They can catch the fair kick. Yes. Yep. So the ball just has to.

to be past 10 yards. So in theory, they could have caught that. Yes, that's why, and I think people were yelling, like, fair catch, fair catch. It's weird. Yeah, in theory, if you had a guy that had like an 80-inch vertical, he could jump in the air and steal it from the guy trying to catch it if he doesn't wave fair catch. Okay. So it's an easy stop.

Wave, fair catch, and it's all over. By the way, since we're on this topic. And you have to give him room to catch. Did you see that, oh, you did something like that this weekend of, and it was a I did, too. They had a guy jump clean over the guy snapping the ball on a field goal. Oh, yeah. Because you can't launch yourself.

You can't get a running start. So this dude, big, like, safety linebacker dude just puts his arms up, does like a high jump. Swing. And gets over the center and blocks the kick. Wow. And our split zone duo, the substack college football pod, put a video up, like, in the rule book, if you're stationary. So you can't run from way. back and time it.

You have to be stationary. If you are and you can get over that guy, like I guess that's actually allowed. You can't touch him either. You can't touch the center at all or they'll flag you. It's just a broad jump. It's like it's a broad jump over a human that's like squatted down. Like to see a Wemby to do it every.

So you have a high vertical? Like I know he's probably. Hand will go high. High enough. And then it was interesting to me that they, didn't kick that field goal down they're up 17 they're inside the five yard line we're they're about the 10 or something right and it was a fourth and two and they went for it i thought they would just kick the field goal because if you can go up three touchdowns

you've really cemented things it was all over anyway but this is shoddy's mentor and And they went for it, and it looked like CD was running a route intentionally to not get the touchdown, but to just get the first down. And in the post-game press conference, they did ask him about that. And they kind of just said it in a way of, hey, you weren't going to run up the score there. You weren't going to score. And he said, that's right. we weren't going to score. So I really wonder what would have happened

if that throw was a little better, if C.D was a little, like, if C.D caught it, does he fall down there or does he turn in and score? Because are you telling me? At all, that's six. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

There's no way. He's already there. He was already there. That was a bad route then, if that's what you were trying to do. And I think that probably messed with his head as the ball was coming at him because I've never seen him drop that.

I'd like a little more follow-up. on that it just felt weird just even running that play if you're running that play you're trying to score a touchdown right now you're running up the score on your mentor you could have just kneeled but then that almost is embarrassing as well right if there's four minutes left in this game you're just going to kneel and not score a touchdown or not kick a field goal or anything yeah it was strange strange cd game strange cd year um let's play a little more audio machine likes audio right you like listening to things don't you i love audio okay well i'll save that one uh so lisa another lisa salter's report

and it's about jake ferguson you'll you'll know why i'm playing this lisa we talked to dack about his relationship it's always been good with jake ferguson but the football iq has grown this year yeah jake ferguson said he wanted to be intentional about the way he trained in the offseason didn't want to be a robot. He wanted to see with Daxies. Did you, uh, oh yeah, very important. Intentionality, folks. Okay, this is the one. Did everybody know that Jake Ferguson is like the toughest

son of a bitch alive? Because Troy was talking like there were just like stories of him wrestling alligators or something. And I'm just like, I don't know. He's a tight end. He goes across the middle and get his ass popped a lot. Yeah, I think. I guess that's tough. It's football family, man. It's just being Barry Alvarez's grandson

You're the guy who played it Nebraska in the heyday Yeah he's He's gonna get a spain flag on the back of his helmet Which looks badass That does I think this is Troy Trying to give you a little hope there Jake

You know I think back Joe to 2018 For the Dallas Cowboys And they were three and five After eight games And they made that trade that year for Amari Cooper and it turned their season around and they ended up getting on a run and won seven of their last eight games finished 10 and six made it to the postseason won a playoff game and got to the division around before losing but you know jerry jones is the eternal optimist when it comes to this football team and he believes that some of the moves that he made could ignite this team and put them right back in the middle of the race handoff to malik so they were three and four and five in 2018. What are they now?

Four, five, and one. Better. Yep, just looking at the playoff predictor machine here, and if they are to win on Sunday against Philadelphia, that would put them up to a, ooh, a 16% chance

to get into the playoffs. That's exactly where they want to be. I'm not saying it can't happen, but you've got to get this one before, anybody could say anything. That percentage stuff is all bullshit anyway, right? No. What side are you looking at?

Just saying that, you know. Made silver? Then all of a sudden, like, it can jump up and, oh, no, no, no, it's 98% because this happened, like, come on. Don't ever show me the odds. I'm not doing this. You know, I say there's no momentum in numbers? I don't know.

This is where. Yeah, like, which one do we believe? They're telling us about the Pete Carroll relationship with Brian Schottenheimer, and we know that Pete Carroll kind of created Schottie in a lab. Yeah, and I think Pete has such a unique way about him. I know in visiting with Chip Kelly, he said that he's never been around a head coach like Pete Carroll, as positive as he is, and all the energy that he brings and the competition. Pretty funny, the way that he incorporates competition and everything.

If there's a disagreement on the football field, they have a shoot-off. It's a basketball goal there in the locker room. all kinds of things to create competition. I legit had to rewind to be like, is he still talking about them or us? This is the guy we got to blame for all this. Yeah. I'm sure Pete Carroll's a badass coach and does have the energy that most 70-year-olds don't have. But what I noticed during a game is he's just chewing the F out of some gum.

Oh, is he? Pounding it? That's energy. So, So Mike Machine Marshall, I would guess you stand more on the – would you lean a little more like socialist over capitalist or what is your – I just know that when Jake – Jake will mark a couple of things, then I'll mark a couple of things, then I'll pull the audio. And I have to put tone in when I'm reading Jake's thing, but he said – let me see if I even have that written down. Did you have any tone when you said? It's about the sweet.

Yeah. So they're doing a high-powered, they're doing a come out of break and we're going to show you the owner's suite. All right, I'll play it, and then I'll read you what Jake wrote in his notes. Sandy Blackman, Santana, who we get the honor of following every Monday night, playing the drums in our theme song on the left. Mark Davis, owner of the Las Vegas radio. on the right.

Mike Meldman down in that front row. Egon Durbin. Melvin, the founder of Discovery Land Company. High-powered suite. Okay. Some asshole. A high-powered suite. And then Jake, in his notes, he just wrote, you know,

Shottie hears his dad, talking about the producer at dinner. Pete Carroll is to blame for Shottie's bits. And then he writes, Sweet, who gives a shit? Like, what were we doing? In all caps. Like, he's yelling at me. It felt like it was a sponsored

read. I'm like, Egon Durbin. I'm like, who the, and you look it up, it's like, Discovery Land Company. Come on. He's the CEO of American Global Private Equity Firm focused on tech and technology enabled investments. Like, I remember the days when they were like,

hey, it's Jody Foster. Or, look up there. You haven't seen her in a while. it's uh it's rosan it's someone somebody's ever heard of right and this robert duval yeah exactly it's just a bunch of tech and money ghouls hanging out with and by god just the women you see like the 60 year old Vegas woman that is a that is a zombie just walking around she's been around A husk. A husk of a person.

So I didn't know, like, I'm not criticizing or anything. I just don't know how I would have handled it. I don't know the right way, the wrong way. Shadi wearing the Marshawn-Nielan T-shirt. I mean, it's always in your face then. But maybe that's what he wanted and that's motivation throughout the game. I don't know. But it was a highly, I mean, very emotional pregame.

tribute to Marshawn Neeland and then they it felt like that emotion was still there as you're hearing the national anthem and tears are flowing and they're going to go to break and so you know

we have to throw it to break and then you're always wondering what's the commercial going to be you know the first commercial well let me just play you the whole sequence here as you go to bring Oh, wow.

How moving. And the home of the brain. Tears on a Monday night. I'm sorry to interrupt Joe Buffett. Chills on a Monday night. It's time to play football when we come back. Big, Bruce, Director, attention to the parachute. Three, two, one.

Nuggets! Hi, I'm Kylie. I'm John. Yeah, there's really no good way to do it. So I'm crying, tears are falling, you know, I'm sitting here, I'm emotional, I'm a wreck. Three, two, one. Nuggets! Nuggets!

The dunza, dunza, dunza.