Dallas Cowboys: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Preseason Game 4

We offer a few observations from the Dallas Cowboys’ fourth preseason game. There was some good, some bad and some downright ugly play.

On Thursday night, the Dallas Cowboys played their final game of the preseason against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Cowboys ended up losing the contest but some of their players ended up winning. Let’s go over the good, the bad, and the ugly of the preseason finale.

First, the good – part 1. Defensive lineman Daniel Wise earned himself an NFL paycheck last night. We don’t know if Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones will sign the check or if it will come from another team yet.

Wise was a consistent threat rushing the quarterback. His stat line for the game shows five tackles including three for a loss and two sacks but his pressures and overall quarterback harassment stood out.

And now for some more good – part 2. Cowboys fans were very disheartened when the team bypassed safeties Juan Thornhill, Taylor Rapp and Nasir Adderley in favor of defensive tackle Trysten Hill in the second round of the NFL draft. The team selected safety Donovan Wilson in the sixth round from Texas A&M.

Wilson recorded his third interception of the preseason in the first half when he read the quarterbacks eyes and ball hawked his way to a pick. To further cement a place on the final 53, he made a bone crushing tackle on the second half opening kickoff where he will be expected to make most of his initial contributions. Sure hope his ankle injury is not serious.

Now the bad.  Wise and Wilson’s fellow rookie Trysten Hill continued his rough preseason. He was seen moving backwards on too many plays and rarely ever able to get penetration.

On the first Tampa Bay offensive snap of the second half, it was a defensive line meeting at quarterback Vincent Testaverde’s office but someone forgot to tell Hill. On the plus side, Trysten was able to chase the pass catcher so that he did not record a loaf.

And now the ugly. The pass protection in the first half from the offensive line of Mitch Hyatt, Brandon Knight, Adam Redmond, Juwann Bushell-Beatty and Jake Campos was intolerably horrible.

The highlight, or is it lowlight, of the half occurred when Brandon Knight missed a blitz pickup that allowed Tampa Bay linebacker Jack Cichy a ten yard sprint before laying out quarterback Mike White.  You didn’t need to be Hall of Fame running back turned broadcaster for the night Emmitt Smith to realize that White was lucky to be walking at the end of the first half.

If there was a silver lining to the poor pass protection then it was offensive coordinator Kellen Moore adjusting the game plan to include more screens and swing passes to defeat the quick pressure that Tampa Bay front four were bringing on nearly every single pass play.