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David Moore on SportsDay podcast: Cowboys are going play as a 'very tight team' going forward

Cowboys beat writer David Moore hopped on SportsDay's Upon Further Review podcast to talk about Dallas' win over the Dolphins, Tony Romo's health, whether the playoffs are still in reach, and much, much more.

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Here's an excerpt of the audio, which can be listened to in its entirety below.

On Jason Garrett's reaction to Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams' excessive celebration penalty and the sequence at the end of the first half:

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"Rather than focus on that penalty, he focused on that entire sequence, which means he was upset by the penalty. He said, 'Look, we didn't handle that sequence the way we needed to.' People were asking after the game, 'Well, that was a horrible squib kick.' Well, it wasn't a squib kick. They told him, 'Look, we don't want to do a squib kick, but we don't want you to get it in the air either because that's going to let him return it,' so do something in between, so what you got is whatever happened. And then to hit that 47-yard play immediately after getting that field position, behind Byron Jones, really put them in a bind and really took away - again - a dominate first half."

On how Sean Lee and Rolando McClain will be able to contain Panthers QB Cam Newton's rushing:

"Different teams take different approaches. Whether they technically spy Cam Newton with Sean Lee or Rolando McClain, I'm not sure about that, but I think they're going to give them keys and plays where they just say, 'Look, in this situation, you take this zone and you obviously know, there's a good chance he's going to run, so you're going to have to stay disciplined, you're going to have to stay here, read it and react at the very last second, but be ready to take that away.' I think you're going to see that instead of a true, 'OK, Sean Lee, you follow him wherever he goes and you're just assigned to him.' The Cowboys traditionally and Rod Marinelli don't like to do that."

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On Tony Romo's health:

"He said he felt fine, but again, when you haven't played in two months and you get knocked around for the first time, I don't know that asking you immediately after the game is the true test. I think it's more (Monday) and the next day. We even saw last year when he was playing in arguably his best prolonged streak of his career, his worst game, came on Thanksgiving when you had a quick turnaround off of a Sunday game, because it disrupted his routine. I would say in an odd sort of way the fact that he hasn't played much lately might actually help him going into this Thanksgiving Day game because you don't have the irritation and aggregation that you would have on the constant throwing motion on the back."

On the Cowboys' playoff chances:

"I don't think you come out of a seven-game losing streak and say, 'You know what, if we split coming out of this seven-game losing streak, we're fine going into the final five games.' You've got to start building something now. ... If you would've got a split of at Atlanta and New Orleans you would've stemmed the tide and it wouldn't have gotten as bad as it did and if you would've won either the New York or Philadelphia game on the back end, you would've had such a different feel to this season. Now it's all desperation, now it's such a fine line. ... When you know one mistake can end or season, or your chance for a playoff run, sometimes people tighten up, and that's what they're going to be the rest of the way. They're going to be a very tight team going forward."