Cowboys Find Balance, Eagles’ Baffling Blitz Decision & Mark Followill on the Young Mavs

Hi, I'm Norm Hitzges, welcome again to Just Wondering. On this week's show, segment one will focus on the Cowboys victory over Philadelphia. Yes, the win was nice, but there may have been even something more important inside that victory.

And then the last two segments of the show will be a discussion of the Dallas Mavericks with their longtime very talented and rewarded Mark Followill. And now a word from our title sponsor. Eying retirement?

We aim to turn your nest egg into a paycheck with half the amount you've been led to believe. Fluent Financial combines in house portfolio design risk management with income generating investments designed to aid your financial independence. Our goal is to develop an effective portfolio strategy to help you retire sooner and have a better lifestyle.

Fluent Financial can also implement a program that allows business owners to install a cash balance plan, which may potentially reduce income tax payments. You've worked hard to become successful. Let us help develop an effective portfolio strategy that works for you.

Learn more today about Fluent Financial. Retire sooner, better lifestyle. For more information or to schedule a meeting, visit fluentfinancial.com or call (972) 852-4800.

In the NFC East, which isn't exactly full of beasts, just getting to three and four like the Cowboys did with their win over Philadelphia is important. Can you believe three and four clearly gives them second place in the division? Only the Giants who may be looking a bit more salty than we thought are ahead of them, and that by one and a half games.

But I think in Monday night's game something more important may have happened for the Cowboys. They may have found a new offensive identity. This club has been a slinging around, slinging around, slinging around.

Oh, yes, Gervonta Williams had a good year running the ball last year. But the consistency of the cowboy running game, well, hadn't been here so far this season, but it was sure here Monday night. Williams rambled for a 155 yards and a touchdown.

The Cowboys and all 204 yards rushing. This is from one of the worst rushing teams in the league, and against the Philadelphia defense that had been holding up very well against the run. But there's a word here that you haven't heard a lot over the last couple of years, and that's offensive balance.

The Cowboys ran for 204 yards and threw for 212 yards. And I don't remember the last time that the Cowboys had such balance in a solid overall performance. The offensive line was the best it looked all year.

There were no sacks, no false starts, no holding penalties. In fact, there was only one offensive penalty. Can you believe it?

Only one offensive penalty in the whole game, and that was the delay of game penalty that the Cowboys wanted to take. I I can't remember the last time the Cowboys played a game this clean. No turnovers, no sex, and one forgettable offensive penalty.

And the Cowboys threw the ball downfield more than they have. I don't know about you, but I get worn out on swing passes to running backs behind the line of scrimmage, and three and four yard dump passes to tight ends. Well, Cowboys threw the ball downfield Monday night.

There was however, a key underrated moment in the game. It was a key possession late in the second quarter. Dallas and Philadelphia had gone back and forth and back and forth.

It was Dallas seventeen fourteen. And then Philadelphia pinned Dallas to their own two yard line in the last couple of of minutes, and Dallas went three and out. Punted the ball back to Philadelphia.

The Eagles started that possession down three points with a minute and thirty nine seconds to go. They had a timeout left. The object for Philadelphia, obviously score, but even the bigger object, make sure Dallas doesn't get the ball back with time left to score.

So what did Philadelphia do? Their backup quarterback is a young man named Tanner McKee. Tanner McKee does not have much scrambling ability at all, And his big weapons, well, the lead receiver Devonta Smith wasn't there to injury.

He's had a banged up offensive line though was healthier for this game. And Saquon Barkley was back, sort of, He kept taking himself out of the game because of the hamstring injury he's been suffering. But with 139 to go, McKee made a huge mistake.

Darius Cooper was wide open coming across the middle, and McKee threw the ball into the ground. It would have been a 15, 20 yard game again, and would have moved Philadelphia to the verge of field goal range, if not infield goal range. So on second and 10, they had a quick cross pattern to MacKay Lemon, maybe seven, eight, nine yards downfield.

But he threw the ball so badly behind him that Lemon could not get back and catch the ball. So then it was third and 10. And instead of throwing the ball to someplace where they might have gotten the first down, McKee just dumped a very short pass to Lemon that got five yards and the Cowboys quick called a timeout and the Eagles punted.

So in that possession, Philadelphia used only twenty five seconds off the play clock. Got no points. Forced Dallas to use only one time out, and Dallas got the ball back at their own 13 yard line with a minute and fourteen to go and promptly move the ball down the field and kick the field goal to make it 20 to 14.

When Philadelphia got the ball back at their own 41, I thought they'll get a field goal to tie the game seventeen seventeen. Goodness, they have time in the field position even thinking might get a touchdown to go ahead twenty one seventeen. At the very worst use up the clock because they're going to get the second half kickoff, and there's no score in the last two minutes of the game.

But no, in this huge possession, Dallas got a score, a score very unlikely when the two minute mark hit. It was much more likely Philadelphia to get a score and they didn't. Dallas did make some interesting lineup decisions during the game.

At tight end, it appears now that Brevin Spanford and Jake Ferguson are splitting time at tight end, and Revan Spanford appears to be on the verge of taking over that position. The number three tight end, Luke Schoonmaker, he played only 11 of the 58 offensive plays. The wide receiver Jonathan Ming was involved more playing 23 plays, and George Pickens played only 41 of the 68 offensive plays.

And defense, the linebacker Demarvion Overshone's back, and Dee Winners was hurt. So who would you expect which linebacker would get the most snaps? Demarvion Overshone?

No, the kid Jayshawn Barham for sure has been starting middle linebacker. Neither one of them. Shamar James got the most snaps at linebacker by a wide margin.

In fact, Barham, who has been... Well, these had some buzz about him to the first six games. He played only 21 of the 58 snaps had one tackle and one assist.

Another rookie, first round draft choice Malachi Lawrence, he played only 30 plays. He got one assisted tackle, nothing else. No quarterback hits, no sacks, nothing.

And on defense, Quinn and Williams had his best game of the year, and that's good news for the Cowboys, because they needed him back as that disruptive force of defensive tackle. On defense, the Cowboys allowed only 21 points, but wait, that could have been more. As we said, backup quarterback Tanner McKee was not very good.

And Philadelphia honestly, with a solid quarterback could have been in the thirties in this game. The offense was very good, but I left the game with one huge question regarding Philadelphia's defense. Green Bay and Tampa Bay, the last two teams Dallas played each of whom beat them, had incredible success blitzing Dak Prescott.

So why didn't Philadelphia do that? Vic Fangio, their defensive coordinator is not famous for using the blitz, but goodness, Green Bay and Tampa had success with it. Why not try it more than he did?

And he used a very moderate number of blitzes. Dallas is now three and four, just ahead two very beatable teams in Arizona and Indianapolis, but those are pretty much must wins for the Cowboys to get to five and four, because in their last eight games after Arizona and Indianapolis, the schedule includes San Francisco, Seattle, the Rams, Jacksonville, and the Giants who seem to find... Seem to have found an answer quarterback with JJ McCarthy.

Next up, a couple of notes about cowboy legends. What do you want from your favorite restaurant? Fantastic personal service, a cheery welcoming spotless atmosphere, and of course, great food.

The primus to beef, Wagyu and lamb, incredibly fresh seafood, lobster, salmon, shrimp, hall of fame food from a hall of fame restaurant, two locations of Bob's Steak and Chop House, the original Bob's on Lemon Avenue, and the gorgeous new Bob's at Craig Ranch McKinney. Every Tuesday at 05:30, join the Sunset Lounge at Scout in the Statler. Now if you're one of the first five people to give the bartender the password, the password is football.

Be one of the first five to say the word football to the bartender, and all kinds of good things are gonna come your way, such as a free drink or free valet service. Stick around afterward for Ziggy with Beer thirty Sports O'clock. He'll be doing his podcast from down there.

You can watch three wide and then Ziggy. Half price to... Half price valet is available for everyone.

It's every Tuesday, 05:30 at Scout at the Statler Scout. I'm glad I can be with the guys now, and I am assuming the role of leader. Mark Followill has been the TV voice of the Dallas Maverick since 2005.

He began by doing the radio broadcasts in 2001. And his career has just expanded and expanded and expanded. He added FC Dallas soccer to his resume in 2012.

That caught the attention of Fox nationally, who asked him to do soccer, and then NBC asked him to do the twenty sixteen Summer Olympics. And again in 2020. And again in 2024.

He's done World Cup games. Years ago, he did SMU football. He's he's doing Fox nationally college football games and Big ten network, and he's won a slew of awards.

But I don't have time to go into all that stuff because it's time to talk to Mark. First of all, thanks for your time, buddy. Norm, for you, anything.

Thank you so much for the warm and wonderful introduction. That means the world coming from you, a legend in this market and to spend a few minutes talking Mavericks with you is a great way to spend any day and looking forward to our chat. Mark, might we begin with a health update on you?

I'm doing great. Yeah. Health is health is good.

Some silly folks at Facebook. There was a silly thing that was floating around a few months ago. So but I'm okay.

That was all all hoax. And so I'm doing great. Nothing's wrong.

Still working out a lot. Still not doing much running these days. Little plantar fasciitis.

That's the worst thing going on with me these days. A little plantar fasciitis on my left heel. So Peloton and all the time and just, you know, try to do as much as I can at 55, you know?

Well, if plantar fasciitis is your bigger problem, biggest problem, you're going to live forever. Yeah, I can only hope. Dusty May had wonderful success in college basketball, but he's a newbie in the NBA.

Should we expect this season to be a learning experience not only for a bunch of younger players, but for the head coach himself? Yeah, I think he's pretty open about the fact that he's going to have to learn some new things. There's timing to the game.

You know, the games are obviously longer. So managing timeouts and managing the ebb and flow of those games. And then of course, how do you manage a schedule in which you're playing four times a week pretty often, which then, of course, limits the time that you can practice.

And in in a college season, over the course of five months, you'll play a maximum of 40 games. Meanwhile, in NBA season, you're gonna play 82 games in about six months. So, obviously, it's just it's a much, much different game.

It's a much different cadence to the season. And so, yes, there's no doubt there's going to be a learning experience for him. I do think Norm, one of the things that he did that was very, very smart.

This is not only the, this is not the first half to do this by the way, but when you have a new NBA head coach to have one of your assistants be a former NBA head coach. So I thought the hiring of Willie Green, the former New Orleans Pelicans head coach was a really, really smart hire to have him be his lead assistant, and he's got unique components from all of his assistants. But having someone who said at the big chair in the NBA is really important, I think.

As such, can we expect a lot of different lineups from him as he tries to figure out exactly what he has? Yes. I think that that is a function not just of Dusty's adjustment to the NBA game.

Think that's also a function of where the mavericks are as a roster. They have players coming in and out of the lineup due to injury, and they have players with different skill sets. They have different ways that they can play.

And so I do believe that there will be a lot of fluidity with regard to the starting lineup and the rotation as well. It's a it's a deep team and depth is good, but sometimes of course depth also means that you have the ability to make adjustments based on the opponent that you're playing that night. And again of course, the reality is they have a lot of players coming off injury situations who may or may not be able to play back to backs consistently.

There have been a couple of players who've been a little bit more banged up than I think they anticipated here at the start of the season. So that's going to necessitate fluidity with lineups. This is a very, very young roster.

12 players of 25 years old or younger. And we know that Masayu Jerry and Mike Schmitz are very aggressive in trying to build rosters. Can we expect as this season goes on for the Mavericks to be very active in the trade front?

Well, I certainly think that they'll be opportunistic. That's a word that this organization has used for a long time, and I don't think anything changes. There have been a lot of changes, of course, in leadership of the organization as we know over the last few years, but I don't think anything changes with regard to the willingness to be flexible and change the roster if the opportunity presents itself.

The youth that you're speaking of on this roster averages out to an age of 25 years old and around forty days as we start this season. They've gone from being at the start of last year, Norm, the sixth oldest roster in the NBA. At the end of last season, they were the twelfth oldest roster in the NBA.

They now have the fifth youngest roster based on average age in the NBA. And of course Norm as you know that's all lining up with the fact that the star in the fulcrum of your team in Cooper Flag is still two months away from turning 20 years old. They're approximately two months away from turning 20 years old.

So there's definitely a desire to be open minded opportunistic on the trade market. And of course, there's going to be an open mind to do things that will fit with the Cooper flag long range timeline. I'm going to make you the head of this organization for just a moment, Mark.

Okay, goodness. You've you've got Kyrie Irving, who is a superstar, but is 34 years old, coming back from injury. There are other very usable tradable types of veterans like Washington and Marshall and and Gafford, who could really help contenders.

But for just a moment, do you think that if Kyrie Irving proves himself healthy, he might be a person offered in trade. Well, I think the Mavs love having Kyrie here because of the youth on the roster that you spoke of. Kyrie Irving has always been an immensely respected player by others in the NBA.

He walks into the locker room or on the practice court or into a huddle or wherever he is around the Dallas Mavericks and he carries an immense amount of gravitas and there is a ton of respect for him. So I think the Mavericks love having him here as someone who is a leader for the young players in this organization. As we've seen in other rebuilding projects and other situations, If you just have a lot of young players and don't have some veteran leadership then there are problems and that can be a difficult path to navigate.

So I think the Mavericks are committed to keeping Kyrie Irving here as the leader as the veteran leader who can play. He's not just leadership but obviously he can play very well. Now if Kyrie were of the mindset that at some point in time down the road he wanted an opportunity to go compete for things at the highest level somewhere else.

Then of course I think the Mavs would be open minded and try to accommodate that. But at this point in time, I believe that Kyrie, I don't believe I know from speaking to him. He loves it here.

They love having it here and if anything changes, it isn't going to be because one side or the other doesn't love being here but of course there are realities to your point of Kyrie could help a contender and he may want that at some point in time down the line but there's a there's a real really, really nice fit between this organization, Kyrie Irving and the Mavericks fan base right now that I don't think anybody is any hurry to sever that. Oklahoma City is now one of the teams in the NBA. They already have a championship and they're still very young.

But if you go back, I don't know, maybe eight years or so, they were wretched. And what they did was they moved valuable veterans for draft choices, and then use salary cap room to take on bad contracts, but pile up more draft choices. Do the Mavericks have salary cap situation where they could make a trade like that to enhance the number of draft picks they have coming?

They don't have a ton of that room. They did have a large trade exception, which they ended up using a lot of that and a lot of their offseason trade maneuvering here in the summer of twenty twenty six. So they don't necessarily have a huge chunk of room.

They do have some room with the trade exception to do roster maneuvering like that. Obviously, we all know that the draft assets are limited for the Mavs moving forward. I think more of a thing that you might see from a team building perspective norm is that within the last handful of months the Mavericks have just the other day acquired the eighteenth pick of the twenty twenty five draft in Walter Clayton Junior.

Over the course of the offseason, they acquired the first pick of the 2024 draft Zachary Riese. They made a move to acquire a late twenty selection from the twenty twenty three draft and Marcus Sasser, even their G league team and the G league draft, the texas legends just on saturday selected a lot of repick from the two thousand twenty two draft Jeremy Silhan. So what I think you're going to see them continue to do is stockpile young players who have not worked out in other situations, bring them here and see if their development ecosystem, if they can unlock some things in young players that were once deemed worthy of some pretty high draft picks and get them to perform up to that level.

There were other things, of course, to your point earlier, there are tradable veterans and that certainly is a tool in the toolbox for adding draft capital. But one of the things I think you'll continue to see with the Mavs is throwing numbers at trying to acquire as many young players as possible. Young players who are believed to have a lot of talent and see what they can do with regard to develop developing them that is here.

One player who has a lot of talent on this club, and is still very young, just can't seem to get healthy. Senator Derek Lively Jr. Underwent foot surgery in December.

And that's the last we've seen of him. Do you have any possible timeline of when we might see Derrick Lively back at center for the Mavericks? I don't.

The Mavs have been pretty guarded about that. I think for a number of reasons. They don't want to rush him.

They don't want to put pressure on him, timelines can do, but nothing's really happening in terms of Lively's recovery right now and what he can and can't do on the floor that indicates that his return to the floor is imminent. So, you know, I would not hold your breath that anything is going to be happening anytime soon. I think given to your point, the nature of him from his age, from what his ceiling can be when he's healthy, that they are going to treat this and on the side of extreme caution and not rush him back with the hopes that this is going to be a player that they can finally get healthy to your point and could be a long term contributor here.

Are you just wondering where your next spectacular vacation will be? Relax. Feel the sun on your body.

Let your cares melt away at the all inclusive Cerenian Bay Resort in Southern Belize. It's literally built right on the sand. The ocean, your ocean, is just a few barefoot steps away.

Laid back luxury, terrific food, a swim up bar, a spa, air conditioned gym, unimaginable service, fishing, snorkeling in gorgeous turquoise waters. Do you want relaxation or do you need adventure? You choose at Ceridian Bay.

Mary and I have been there three times and this summer will be number four. Take a cozy bungalow for two or bring the whole family to villas that can accommodate up to 14. Sirenianbay.com, S I R E N I A N.

The sand and the sea are just waiting for you to get here. My wife, Mary, is the cocreator of Full Moon Healing Balm, and I guess I'm the reason this terrific cream was developed. A few years ago, I began getting these huge, ugly blood blotches just beneath the skin of my arms and hands.

The condition's called senile purpura. And no, you don't have to be senile to experience this embarrassment. It happens as you age.

And then to cover it up, we begin wearing long sleeves even when it's hot. It took two years working with a New Jersey lab to refine the all natural ingredients of full moon healing. Gently massage a very small amount into the skin, and within a day, the blotches begin to fade.

See now, purpura usually takes weeks to disappear. But this balm cuts the timeline to about a week. And ordering's so easy.

Just go to the website, fullmoonhealingco.com. You know, it's a long time since you started at the ticket. We're each alums of the ticket.

Yes, we are. And you broadcast you broadcast. I don't know.

May be 2,000 Maverick games by now or more soccer, football. Do you have any estimate of how many games you've broadcast in your career? Oh, wow.

My Maverick estimate is around 1,800. My college football estimate is probably... Since I don't get to do a full season since there's overlap between football season and Mav season.

And my football employers are gracious enough because not all networks do this if you can only work part of the season. It's either all or nothing. So the folks that have employed me from a football standpoint have been gracious enough to work around my schedule and understand they get me for maybe a half to two thirds of the year.

But the college football estimate is probably around a 120 or a 130, maybe a 140 games. The Major League Soccer estimate is somewhere along the lines I would say of about 350 to 400 games in international soccer, probably another 100 games on top of that. So it's over 2,500 sporting events and counting.

And, you know, and like and as we said earlier, the only thing slowing me down these days is plantar fasciitis. So that doesn't get in the way of broadcasting, gratefully. In all those games, one would assume that the highlight game was the Mavericks championship game, in 2011, but we can often assume wrongly.

Is there another game that challenges that for the best and most memorable game in Mark Falwell's broadcasting career? Well, I've been fortunate to do a lot as we were discussing. I did not, however, get the chance to call the championship in 2011.

The outstanding and good friend of yours, radio voice of the Mavs, Chuck Cooperstein was on the mic, as you know. That's right. Unfortunately, National TV doesn't get the chance to they take over and so local TV, we don't get the opportunity to do a lot of the games after the first round of the playoffs in the past and now we don't get to do any of them.

So any future Maverick playoff games will all be national exclusives, which is a bummer. However, I would say that to answer your question, I've had some splendid experiences in the playoffs. Obviously, Luke Adoncekus provided some incredible memories, 73 points in Atlanta, a 60 triple double against the Knicks, but no night will ever replace what it was like when dirt got to 30,000 points and that was in March 2017 and the story of course behind that, you know, is there were t shirts that were sitting out as early as shoot around that morning at American Airlines Center commemorating him reaching 30,000 points.

Well he hadn't been playing very well leading up to that and he wasn't really happy about that because he needed 20 points going into that game Norm. So he was not too terribly pleased with the marketing staff and their decision making. However, he came out that night and he made the first shot of the game that he took that was a three pointer.

He commenced to score 18 of the 20 points he needed in the first quarter. He added the next basket that he needed early in the second and the way jerk played and the way the arena was on fire from the moment it started the anticipation leading up to the game, the emotion in the arena after he reached that milestone and keep in mind at the time he was just the sixth player ever to do so. There have been a couple of others who have joined since then obviously and Lebron James and Kevin Durant and James Harden is getting very very close to that.

However, everything that went on that night will still go down as my favorite Maverick game and favorite broadcast that I've ever been a part of because it was just such a celebration of everything that Dirk Nowitzges has meant to this franchise who has been, still is, and always will be the greatest Maverick ever. Mark, thank you for your time today. God bless you.

And I I hope that plantar fasciitis doesn't keep you from broadcasting. It's not going to. It's off to Miami for the next Mavs game and a little bit more football before the end of the football season as well, Norm.

So it's great to catch up to you and great to see you and, you know, always a pleasure to speak with you. You're the man. God bless you, Mark.

See you travel safely. Thanks, Norm. And now a word from our title sponsor.

Today's episode has been brought to you by Fluent Financial. Retire Earlier. Live Better.

And by Bob's Steak and Chophouse on Lemon in Dallas and in Craig Ranch in McKinney. Bob's, a Dallas tradition for more than thirty years. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Just Wondering.

I'm Norm Hitzges, and know that every day, I'll be just wondering about something. And I'm Mary Hitzges, and I'll just be wondering too. This is a Stolen Water Media production.