Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy joined Shan & RJ to preview the team’s upcoming matchup with the Baltimore Ravens, what it will take to stop powerful rushers like Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson, and more!
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00:00Obviously the Ravens are coming in here desperate at 0-2.
00:18What struggles have you seen from them on tape that has them winless so far?
00:25I just think they didn't finish the game against the Raiders.
00:31If you just look at the last three series of the game against the Raiders,
00:37I did three 3-and-outs and the Raiders went down and scored three times.
00:42This is an excellent football team.
00:44It's still the team that was competing to go to the Super Bowl last year.
00:49I think it's also the reality of September football.
00:53I understand the records, but we're preparing for the team that's been on tape
01:00as far as the first two weeks, but also we spent a bunch of time on particularly their players.
01:05Last year obviously they've had a lot of change in their coaching staff,
01:08but you're talking about a system and a profile and a program that's been in place for decades.
01:15That's what we're really focused on as far as getting ready to go win this game.
01:21Watching them and seeing Lamar and all the problems he presents,
01:28is he probably the most difficult guy to game plan against
01:33just because you don't know what he's going to do on any given play?
01:36Absolutely.
01:37When you've got an impact player like Lamar is that has the ball in his hands every single play
01:45and has the diversity starting with the time clock of their plays.
01:51Obviously when you design a play there's a time clock to it,
01:55but his off-tempo and extended time clock is probably going to be the biggest challenge we see all year.
02:02His ability to extend plays and then unfortunately for us when he does,
02:08when he pulls the ball down and runs, he is a dynamic runner too.
02:13He still has the ability to stay on the move and make the 50-60 yard throws.
02:18This is a big challenge for our defense.
02:20Coach, do you remember what you thought about him coming out of Louisville?
02:24What's your core philosophy on changing a guy too much?
02:28The big Lamar discussion has always been, or Mike Vick even,
02:32try to have him run less to preserve him, become better as a pocket passer,
02:38or are you just taking away from what makes that player truly special and unique?
02:42What's your philosophy on the dual impact guy and maybe trying to save some of the wear and tear?
02:47I remember the draft.
02:50It was a draft class of Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, and that bunch.
02:56The conversation that Ted Thompson and I had, I forget what we were picking that year,
03:03but he was what we labeled the X factor in that group.
03:10At Louisville, he played for Bobby Petrino.
03:12Bobby ran a pro-style offense, so there was a lot of drawback on tape to evaluate.
03:20We weren't looking to take a quarterback, but it was definitely a discussion.
03:25If he was down there when we picked it, it was definitely a conversation you needed to have.
03:30Just extremely dynamic with the ball in his hand, but there definitely was enough drawback there
03:36that you could say, hey, this guy can also win from the pocket.