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Moore: Cowboys' defense shines, red zone offense looks too much like '09
01:21 AM CDT on Monday, August 9, 2010
Column by DAVID MOORE / The Dallas Morning News | dmoore@dallasnews.com
David Moore
Archive | E-mail
CANTON, Ohio – A celebration of the best the NFL has to offer concluded Sunday evening with the reality of preseason football.
Talk about a downer.
Watching the Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals shake off the rust that comes with seven months between games couldn't compare to the soaring rhetoric and achievement on display the night before at the Hall of Fame enshrinement.
Check out Dallas Morning News photos from the Cowboys' preseason opener
Precious few players on either sideline in the Cowboys 16-7 victory will follow Emmitt Smith and others into the Hall. Many who took the field at Fawcett Stadium this summer evening won't even make it to the regular- season opener in five weeks.
The approach of Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips is to keep it simple in these games. The starting lineup is set. The coaching staff wants to get a better handle on the backup players who can contribute.
It doesn't want to dazzle the opponent with a clever game plan. It wants to execute basic plays on both sides of the ball and determine what still needs work.
"Well, I'm pleased overall," Phillips said. "We would have liked to have done things better in some areas. But I thought some guys showed up and our defense played really well with four turnovers. That's something we have been emphasizing defensively."
Something the coaches have emphasized offensively is to improve in the red zone. Those results there were not as encouraging.
The Cowboys starters did engineer a 14-play, 63-yard drive to score on its only possession. But as they did so often last season, the offense bogged down in the red zone.
The offense snapped the ball six times inside the Cincinnati 20-yard line in the first quarter and failed to score. Here's the sequence that unfolded after the team had a first-and-goal on the 5-yard line:
First play: Felix Jones picks up 4 yards on an inside run but fumbles the ball away. The Cowboys retain possession because Cincinnati lined up offside.
Second play: Quarterback Tony Romo and Roy Williams are unable to connect in the end zone.
Third play: Same play, same principals, same result.
Fourth play: Romo scrambles out of the shotgun and uncorks a pass well over the head of Jones.
The Cowboys settle for the first of three field goals from David Buehler.
"We don't want to show the stuff we'll be using (in regular season), so we go with some things that are vanilla," said Romo, who was 5-of-10 for 59 yards. "I had to throw a couple away down there, and that's part of it.
"But we've still got to find a way to get it in. We're going to work on that again this week."
A Cowboys offense that ranked second in yards last season, ranked 14th in scoring. The Cowboys scored touchdowns only 52 percent of the time inside the 20-yard line. Romo's passer rating of 81.5 in the red zone ranked No. 22 in the league.
"That's something we still need to work on," said Phillips, who declared before camp started the team would take a different approach in the red zone. "We've got to get those in."
More carries for the running backs. More Jason Witten. That has been an emphasis in training camp in recent days.
It didn't show Sunday. The offense struggled in the red zone the way it did against its own defense in San Antonio.
Another troubling sidelight: Romo threw four passes to Williams and only managed to complete one – a 21-yarder over the middle on third-and-12.
"Tony did a good job of moving," offensive coordinator Jason Garrett said. "We protected well. It was a high, firm ball over the linebacker and Roy went up and made the play."
He needs to make more.
With Dez Bryant is out, Williams must get on the same page with Romo. If he doesn't do it now, the opportunities to do so will be reduced once the rookie returns.
All of that being said, there were positives for a Cowboys team that had lost its previous two pre-season openers by a combined score of 62-27. It wasn't perfection.
But it was a decent start.
01:21 AM CDT on Monday, August 9, 2010
Column by DAVID MOORE / The Dallas Morning News | dmoore@dallasnews.com
David Moore
Archive | E-mail
CANTON, Ohio – A celebration of the best the NFL has to offer concluded Sunday evening with the reality of preseason football.
Talk about a downer.
Watching the Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals shake off the rust that comes with seven months between games couldn't compare to the soaring rhetoric and achievement on display the night before at the Hall of Fame enshrinement.
Check out Dallas Morning News photos from the Cowboys' preseason opener
Precious few players on either sideline in the Cowboys 16-7 victory will follow Emmitt Smith and others into the Hall. Many who took the field at Fawcett Stadium this summer evening won't even make it to the regular- season opener in five weeks.
The approach of Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips is to keep it simple in these games. The starting lineup is set. The coaching staff wants to get a better handle on the backup players who can contribute.
It doesn't want to dazzle the opponent with a clever game plan. It wants to execute basic plays on both sides of the ball and determine what still needs work.
"Well, I'm pleased overall," Phillips said. "We would have liked to have done things better in some areas. But I thought some guys showed up and our defense played really well with four turnovers. That's something we have been emphasizing defensively."
Something the coaches have emphasized offensively is to improve in the red zone. Those results there were not as encouraging.
The Cowboys starters did engineer a 14-play, 63-yard drive to score on its only possession. But as they did so often last season, the offense bogged down in the red zone.
The offense snapped the ball six times inside the Cincinnati 20-yard line in the first quarter and failed to score. Here's the sequence that unfolded after the team had a first-and-goal on the 5-yard line:
First play: Felix Jones picks up 4 yards on an inside run but fumbles the ball away. The Cowboys retain possession because Cincinnati lined up offside.
Second play: Quarterback Tony Romo and Roy Williams are unable to connect in the end zone.
Third play: Same play, same principals, same result.
Fourth play: Romo scrambles out of the shotgun and uncorks a pass well over the head of Jones.
The Cowboys settle for the first of three field goals from David Buehler.
"We don't want to show the stuff we'll be using (in regular season), so we go with some things that are vanilla," said Romo, who was 5-of-10 for 59 yards. "I had to throw a couple away down there, and that's part of it.
"But we've still got to find a way to get it in. We're going to work on that again this week."
A Cowboys offense that ranked second in yards last season, ranked 14th in scoring. The Cowboys scored touchdowns only 52 percent of the time inside the 20-yard line. Romo's passer rating of 81.5 in the red zone ranked No. 22 in the league.
"That's something we still need to work on," said Phillips, who declared before camp started the team would take a different approach in the red zone. "We've got to get those in."
More carries for the running backs. More Jason Witten. That has been an emphasis in training camp in recent days.
It didn't show Sunday. The offense struggled in the red zone the way it did against its own defense in San Antonio.
Another troubling sidelight: Romo threw four passes to Williams and only managed to complete one – a 21-yarder over the middle on third-and-12.
"Tony did a good job of moving," offensive coordinator Jason Garrett said. "We protected well. It was a high, firm ball over the linebacker and Roy went up and made the play."
He needs to make more.
With Dez Bryant is out, Williams must get on the same page with Romo. If he doesn't do it now, the opportunities to do so will be reduced once the rookie returns.
All of that being said, there were positives for a Cowboys team that had lost its previous two pre-season openers by a combined score of 62-27. It wasn't perfection.
But it was a decent start.