First Preseason Game - Still Plenty to Work On

Well, the Cowboys had their first preseason game last night against the Charges and even though they lost 17-31, there were many positives they can take back to Oxnard. However, there are just as many, if not more, items they will need to shore up before their next preseason game. The 1st quarter, the team looked very sharp on both offense and defense but the 3 remaining quarters were a bit sloppy. Here are some positives I took from the game:

The 1st team offense went right down the field like a warm knife through butter and scored immediately on San Diego's 1st team defense. Romo looked to be in mid season form already as he was 3 for 3 on the scoring drive. Marion Barber ran like a man possessed...he is simply a beast. Watching him run, you might not have even known it was a preseason game if you didn't already know that.

We also got a glimpse at why Dallas drafted Felix Jones rather than Rashard Mendenhall this year. Jones literally has eye popping speed. There were two runs last night where Felix was tackled by the safety or he would have scored. He is going to be fun to watch and an excellent compliment to Barber. Tashard Choice came in and ran very well in the 3rd quarter too so I really think Dallas has their RB position in good shape.

Miles Austin had several good catches and showed that he has good hands and receiving skills to compliment his speed. He made some tough catches in traffic and might be making a move up the depth chart. And if there's one place the Cowboys need more depth, it's at WR.

The 1st team defense held San Diego's starting offense to 3 and out their first series too. Tank Johnson looked sharp and even got a sack. The 1st team defense got good pressure on Rivers and if that is any indication of how the season goes, the defensive backs might have a little easier job in coverage. Mike Jenkins actually started with the 1st team, as Terrance Newman is out with a groin injury, and did a solid job. He broke up a pass and didn't really look like a rookie.

Now that I've gushed about what excited me, lets put the pom pons down and look at what Dallas needs to address:

The game started to go down hill when the starters left the game and the 2nd and 3rd teamers came in. So all that depth the Cowboys have, right now, doesn't look like it's really ready to go. On offense, there were several disappointing things I saw. Sam Hurd was not impressive at all and hopefully just had a bad game. He had a couple of bad drops and just didn't look like his head was in the game at all.

Martellus Bennett likewise didn't look very good. A "typical" TE type pass was thrown to him (he was running down the middle of the field and the pass was right on the numbers) but he dropped it right after he was hit. Witten would have caught that and even though he is a pro bowl player, that is the type of pass Bennett will be thrown...he has to catch those.

And the miscommunication between Brad Johnson and Patrick Creighton was pretty bad as Johnson threw and out and Creighton streaked up the sideline on a fly route. Again, I know it's the first PRESEASON but that was pretty bad.

The defense looked decent however it gave up 3 pass interference calls inside their own 5 (one was committed by the starters though). That was how San Diego got 21 of it's points. But one disappointment of the night, I didn't expect, was the play of Pac Man Jones. I thought that guy would be starting with the 1st teamers but we saw why he wasn't. He committed one of the pass interference plays I reference above and totally ran by a Charger RB. I know he hasn't played in a year and has some rust to shake of but I really didn't think it would be that much rust. Kevin Burnett had a pretty bad game too as he whiffed on an open field tackle, TWICE, when a Charger RB ran straight at him. Hopefully it was just a bad game for him because those were pretty bad misses.

The biggest disappointment of the night and the place that needs the most work is the play of the special teams, more specifically the punt coverage. To say the coverage play was horrible would be a dramatic understatement. Again and again and again they allowed San Diego to get huge run backs on punts. Last year's coverage wasn't great but last night was atrocious. Also, rookie Danny Amendola was too lax with how he was carrying the ball, on a punt he was returning, and had it stripped. Again, I know it's his first game but he should know better than that.

I defiantly think that not doing much, if any, hitting in the first couple weeks of training camp had a negative impact last night. I'm not saying that they need to go full bore every practice and risk an injury but I do think they probably need to do more hitting than they have. So, after objectively looking at the game, I can honestly say that the starters have picked up where they were last season but the team as a whole has a ways to go before the start of the season. I'll be anxious to see what the coaches think of the first game and how the team practices this week.