After getting our first look at the Dallas Cowboys’ first team offense and defense, there are some positive things that stood out along with some negative. Now I’m not saying that what I saw is the writing on the wall for what’s to come but here it is.
After a whole offseason of hearing about how a Rob Ryan defense is different from your typical 3-4 defense, I got to say I can agree from what little that I saw. On one play you have your typical 3-4 and on the next you have three linebackers(Demarcus Ware, Victor Butler, Anthony Spencer) standing up and just one lineman with his hand on the ground. Also in case you were wondering if those rumors about how Rob Ryan likes to blitz are true, the answer is he most definitely does. On the first snap of the game, Ryan sent the house and Ware smacked down Denver’s quarterback Kyle Orton pass before he even knew what was coming.
The one negative thing that well, slapped you in your face, was how easily the Denver Broncos ran the ball against Dallas. At one point in Denver’s opening drive, the Broncos ran the ball on five consecutive plays for 36 yards, one of them a 12-yard run. The positive aspect of the Cowboy’s defense though was how they shut down the Broncos in the red zone. The Broncos had a fresh set downs to take the ball into the end zone on the 2 yard line and had to settle for a 24 yard field goal after the Cowboys forced three straight incomplete passes in the end zone.
The Cowboys’ offense came in on their twenty yard line and capped off their 10 play, 56 yard drive with a David Buehler 42-yard field goal. Tony Romo completed 3 out of 5 passes for 33 yards and his first pass back on the field was a 11-yard pass for a first down to fullback Chris Gronkowski. Felix Jones showed his burst on two separate plays to put Dallas into scoring position. Felix rushed the ball right up the middle for a 18-yard run and then on a screen pass took the ball another 16 yards.
The Cowboys ended their drive on a 3rd and 10 when the pressure got to Romo and his pass to Dez Bryant was incomplete because Denver’s rush pass Jason Witten into Romo’s throwing arm. Both of the Cowboys’ starting wide receivers didn’t catch a ball on the drive as Romo’s incomplete pass to Dez was the only one thrown to a receiver. Jason Witten was thrown to twice, one incomplete and a 6 yard pass.
There was three players who stood out in my opinion on the opening drives. Jason Hatcher was in the picture of everything when he was on the field with a tackle. The Cowboys’ first round pick Tyron Smith held his own in his first taste of NFL action and then Felix Jones because of the two plays I mentioned earlier.
Like I said to start out, it’s hard to read too much into what happened in the game today with it being the first preseason game. All you can do is hope the positive things carry into the next game and everything else continues to improve. Let’s all just be happy we have some football watch and talk about.