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Poor Pre-season Showings by Cowboys Offense Plants Seeds of Optimism

by Cowboys

After the past two pre-season games against the San Diego Chargers and the Houston Texans, many experts are rethinking the Dallas Cowboys as their Super Bowl pick.  Against the Chargers, the Cowboys held the ball in the first half for little over 6 minutes.  Against the Texans, the Cowboys offensive starters were shutout and totaled 9 rushing yards on 9 carries.  The offensive line has not protected Romo all that well in both games (4 sacks in 5 quarters and numerous hurries).

So what is there to look forward to?  First of all, the Cowboys do not play the Chargers this year unless both teams make it to the Super Bowl.  When the Cowboys played the Chargers in 2009, the Chargers offense cut through the Dallas defense like a hot knife through margarine.  It wasn’t pretty.  Save for two turnovers by the Chargers while in the redzone, a similar story was playing out two weeks ago.

The Texans played poorly against the New Orleans Saints the week prior to their match-up with the Cowboys.  The Texans “starters” were outscored 28 to 10 in the first half of the contest.  Their rushing defense was exposed and the team was embarrassed.  One week later the Texans starters were noticeably more intense than the Dallas starters.  While the third game of the pre-season is a dress rehearsal for the regular season, the two teams were playing two decidedly different games.  The Texans played to win the game, and the Cowboys played to win the game in week three of the regular season.  The Cowboys offense was incredibly vanilla, but they still managed two drives deep into Houston’s territory.  The Cowboys weren’t going to tip their hand and show the Texans their game plan for week three.

Fortunately their week three match-up is less than a month away, September 26.  The Cowboys will still have the taste of this loss in their mouth.  The Cowboys will match, if not exceed the intensity of the Texans.  The mental mistakes will be eliminated (or at least reduced) and the Cowboys offensive line will once again be whole.

The teams will be the same, the location will be the same, but expect a different outcome in the all Texas re-match.

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Vee

It never seems to fail, the sky is always falling because things were a little ugly. The Texans, like the Oilers, share a state with the Cowboys so they always play harder. There are too many bandwagon fans who jump off the minute things are ugly and when they turn good, here they come. I was born and raised as a Cowboys fan and I'm not in denial. They're playbook is supposed to be vanilla-WHY would you show an opponent the good stuff? Who cares what Phil Simms says? I know that my team will be ready to go week one and we will play hard. I don't care if they lost 59-0 because I believe in them. If you don't believe in your team then find another one to cheer for because that's not denial that's called being a real fan. We have a good team and they used preseason the way it was intended to be used: try crazy plays to see if you want to add a wrinkle or two, maybe some new terminology. Go cheer for the bears and watch how quickly you come back!

Go Romo!
Go Cowboys!
We're starting 2-0 and won't look back!

P.S.
I enjoy your work, keep it up!

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jdramirez

I agree. We are either Super Bowl bound or destined to finish in last place. There's very little middle ground when it comes to covering the Cowboys. The media is a little to blame as well. They are looking for stories, and this is low hanging fruit. First it is about the Cowboys (always gets a big number), and secondly the story practically writes itself.

As for the Cowboys fans... we are the victim of our own success. People gravitate towards winners and the Cowboys along with the Steelers have had the most success over the longest period of time since the Super Bowl Era. Both teams have a national following, though I believe we have more random bandwagon fans.

Here's the ironic part... I can't coerce or bribe my daughter into admitting she's even a casual Cowboys fan. How frustrating is that? Do you think blackmail will work on a six year old? If you don't root for the Cowboys, you will go to an orphanage.

And Vee, thanks for the feedback.

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Reggie

Not sure what game you were watching but you're living in a dream land. The Cowboys have had issues all preseason. Wade Phillips was furious after the Texans slaughtered them. If it makes you feel better by thinking that they were holding back then go ahead. There are some real problems plaguing the Cowboys that they haven't been able to work out in the preseason. This isn't going to magically go away in less than two weeks. You can copy what Phil Symms said about them being "vanilla" because it sounds good but you are obviously in denial. As a life-long Dallas fan, I'm a little worried.

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jdramirez

There were problems. Witten had his false start, Romo threw the ball up for grabs against the Chargers, pressure was a problem, lack of holes for the running backs, the defense was shredded in the passing and running game.

I don't see that as a problem. It's the pre-season. Sean Lee played well against the Chargers and struggled against the Texans. I'm 98% sure Brooking would have been playing if it was the regular season.

We did play a vanilla defense with limited movement at the line, no exotic blitz packages, etc. A good offense will play well against that scheme.

I'm not happy at the outcome of the game, but I don't believe it is time to worry yet. The Texans simply wanted it more than the Cowboys. You play hard and good things will happen. I don't think the Cowboys played hard in that game and it showed.

The season begins with the Skins and potentially Rex Grossman at QB (I doubt McNabb will miss the game, but there's a chance). Then we play against a Bears team that signed free agents left and right except for where it was most needed (at the o-line). Then we play the Texans again. We won't see the same game as before. That doesn't mean we will roll over them and win big, but it's definitely not going to be an embarrassment.

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