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Caution: Boys at Work
A good thing training camp is still in progress
by Mickey Spagnola
DC.com
http://www.dallascowboys.com/docs/spagnola_column_081310.html
OXNARD, Calif. - Good thing the high here on Saturday will only be 66 degrees.
Good thing the fields out here at the River Ridge Sports Complex are made up of real, honest-to-goodness green grass.
Good thing there are still two more weeks of concentrated training camp work to be completed, three more preseason games and a whole month until the Cowboys open the 2010 season at Washington the night of Sept. 12.
Because let me be the second to tell you, the Cowboys still have a whole lot of work to do.
Wade Phillips beat me to the punch Thursday night at Cowboys Stadium.
"This just proves we have more work to do," said the Cowboys head coach. "I'll tell you what I told the team, there is more work to do. I'm not happy with the results. I thought we played more like the first preseason game than the second one.
"The only good thing out of it is we didn't get anybody hurt. That's how I feel right now. ... We have things to work on."
Gobs of things to work on.
Now, as you can tell the head coach was pretty much bent out of shape following the 17-9 preseason loss to the Oakland Raiders Thursday night at Cowboys Stadium, even if the loss doesn't mean a hill of beans once the season begins.
And here is the reason: The Cowboys, and no consolation they entered the fourth quarter holding a commanding 9-0 lead against a team playing its first preseason game and having to fly more than three hours on Wednesday to do so, seemed to have lost concentration.
Predictable. There was a lull this week in the concentrated work that is training camp, as if finishing up their two-week stay in San Antonio, coming home for a night, playing in Canton, Ohio, then spending the next three nights at home destroyed focus.
Not to mention there was but one practice this week, and while they worked long, they didn't have pads on during the exhibition at Cowboys Stadium Tuesday night.
How do we know that?
The Cowboys quarterbacks were sacked six times, and half of those were Tony Romo. They only rushed for 66 yards. They only converted three of 16 third downs. And for the second time in five days, they failed to score an offensive touchdown.
Yuk.
Said the quarterback, Romo, who suffered some tightness in his back after getting clobbered in just two possessions, "We have to find a way to improve our execution."
Said the offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, "We're not starting over from scratch but we've got to get back into that training camp mode - we need to get back into that training camp mode of grinding away."
And this from Jason Witten, the only tight end on the field who actually practiced more than one day at tight end during training camp, "We need to get back in training camp mode when we get out there."
That's what I'm talkin' about.
Even better, no one floated any injury excuses. It was as if, so what the Cowboys had 13 players missing because of injury or precautionary measures, and the truth of the matter is that number could have been 15 had the Cowboys not waived two injured guys earlier in the week.
Or, so what the team was missing four of the five tight ends who began training camp, and of the three to play behind Witten Thursday night, one was a rookie free-agent fullback, one was an offensive guard and one had arrived on Tuesday.
And no one was discounting the loss because Stephen McGee and Matt Nichols threw more passes than Romo and Jon Kitna combined, or that it was the Cowboys second- and third-team defenders on the field when the Raiders offense put up those 10 fourth-quarter points or that the final touchdown was an interception return off a tipped pass with Nichols trying to operate a two-minute drill.
Look, coaches don't like to lose, no matter the circumstances. Like, you should have seen secondary coach Dave Campo, shaking his head in disgust on the sideline after the Raiders rallied to take a 10-9 lead with just 2:24 left to play. He took it personally, no matter who was on the field.
You should have heard Wade, when someone tried to cut the postgame interview tension by suggesting Mat McBriar and David Buehler had good nights, as they did, but come on, they're kickers, saying, "Yeah, that's true," flashing this wry smile.
And when he walked out of the locker room, looking pretty glum, not even a well-wisher could brighten his spirits. That's what month-old granddaughters are for.
You know what, good. He's setting the tone for these coming two weeks out here where this place might look like a vacation spot, but believe me, this won't be no vacation.
Not when you have a team coming off an 11-5 campaign, having finally won the franchise's first playoff game in 14 seasons that's returning 20 of 22 starters and seemingly everyone from Vegas to London is picking to win the NFC. Those guys, you got to ride. Hard.
Now Wade has this 17-9 ammunition to do just that when the Cowboys get back to work out here this weekend, with two practices on Saturday and two more on Sunday. Being on grass and in the temperate weather will be conducive to working long and hard.
Again. After all, this still is training camp, and the feeling is a reminder is but a day away.
There was Romo, though, sort of knocking down my refocusing theory, saying, "The defense played pretty good," making no excuses for the offensive performance.
Sure enough. The first-team defense picked up where it had left off on Sunday in the 16-7 victory over Cincinnati when it held the Bengals to just 22 yards in the two possessions played. This time, in the two full possessions on the field, the Cowboys first-team defense held the Raiders to seven yards.
Nevertheless, training camp indeed is not over. And while five preseason games might have caused some serious dread from the start, now it appears having three more to play - at San Diego and Houston, then back home vs. Miami - is a darn good thing if Thursday night is any indication.
There is work to do. A lot.
And salty veteran Keith Brooking certainly has not been fooled by the practice lull this past week, nor is he buying into this game giving the coaching staff the perfect fodder for cracking the whip out here on the West Coast the next two weeks. For as he said, "You're in for hell regardless of what the circumstances are.
"It's just training camp."
And now for sure, still.
A good thing training camp is still in progress
by Mickey Spagnola
DC.com
http://www.dallascowboys.com/docs/spagnola_column_081310.html
OXNARD, Calif. - Good thing the high here on Saturday will only be 66 degrees.
Good thing the fields out here at the River Ridge Sports Complex are made up of real, honest-to-goodness green grass.
Good thing there are still two more weeks of concentrated training camp work to be completed, three more preseason games and a whole month until the Cowboys open the 2010 season at Washington the night of Sept. 12.
Because let me be the second to tell you, the Cowboys still have a whole lot of work to do.
Wade Phillips beat me to the punch Thursday night at Cowboys Stadium.
"This just proves we have more work to do," said the Cowboys head coach. "I'll tell you what I told the team, there is more work to do. I'm not happy with the results. I thought we played more like the first preseason game than the second one.
"The only good thing out of it is we didn't get anybody hurt. That's how I feel right now. ... We have things to work on."
Gobs of things to work on.
Now, as you can tell the head coach was pretty much bent out of shape following the 17-9 preseason loss to the Oakland Raiders Thursday night at Cowboys Stadium, even if the loss doesn't mean a hill of beans once the season begins.
And here is the reason: The Cowboys, and no consolation they entered the fourth quarter holding a commanding 9-0 lead against a team playing its first preseason game and having to fly more than three hours on Wednesday to do so, seemed to have lost concentration.
Predictable. There was a lull this week in the concentrated work that is training camp, as if finishing up their two-week stay in San Antonio, coming home for a night, playing in Canton, Ohio, then spending the next three nights at home destroyed focus.
Not to mention there was but one practice this week, and while they worked long, they didn't have pads on during the exhibition at Cowboys Stadium Tuesday night.
How do we know that?
The Cowboys quarterbacks were sacked six times, and half of those were Tony Romo. They only rushed for 66 yards. They only converted three of 16 third downs. And for the second time in five days, they failed to score an offensive touchdown.
Yuk.
Said the quarterback, Romo, who suffered some tightness in his back after getting clobbered in just two possessions, "We have to find a way to improve our execution."
Said the offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, "We're not starting over from scratch but we've got to get back into that training camp mode - we need to get back into that training camp mode of grinding away."
And this from Jason Witten, the only tight end on the field who actually practiced more than one day at tight end during training camp, "We need to get back in training camp mode when we get out there."
That's what I'm talkin' about.
Even better, no one floated any injury excuses. It was as if, so what the Cowboys had 13 players missing because of injury or precautionary measures, and the truth of the matter is that number could have been 15 had the Cowboys not waived two injured guys earlier in the week.
Or, so what the team was missing four of the five tight ends who began training camp, and of the three to play behind Witten Thursday night, one was a rookie free-agent fullback, one was an offensive guard and one had arrived on Tuesday.
And no one was discounting the loss because Stephen McGee and Matt Nichols threw more passes than Romo and Jon Kitna combined, or that it was the Cowboys second- and third-team defenders on the field when the Raiders offense put up those 10 fourth-quarter points or that the final touchdown was an interception return off a tipped pass with Nichols trying to operate a two-minute drill.
Look, coaches don't like to lose, no matter the circumstances. Like, you should have seen secondary coach Dave Campo, shaking his head in disgust on the sideline after the Raiders rallied to take a 10-9 lead with just 2:24 left to play. He took it personally, no matter who was on the field.
You should have heard Wade, when someone tried to cut the postgame interview tension by suggesting Mat McBriar and David Buehler had good nights, as they did, but come on, they're kickers, saying, "Yeah, that's true," flashing this wry smile.
And when he walked out of the locker room, looking pretty glum, not even a well-wisher could brighten his spirits. That's what month-old granddaughters are for.
You know what, good. He's setting the tone for these coming two weeks out here where this place might look like a vacation spot, but believe me, this won't be no vacation.
Not when you have a team coming off an 11-5 campaign, having finally won the franchise's first playoff game in 14 seasons that's returning 20 of 22 starters and seemingly everyone from Vegas to London is picking to win the NFC. Those guys, you got to ride. Hard.
Now Wade has this 17-9 ammunition to do just that when the Cowboys get back to work out here this weekend, with two practices on Saturday and two more on Sunday. Being on grass and in the temperate weather will be conducive to working long and hard.
Again. After all, this still is training camp, and the feeling is a reminder is but a day away.
There was Romo, though, sort of knocking down my refocusing theory, saying, "The defense played pretty good," making no excuses for the offensive performance.
Sure enough. The first-team defense picked up where it had left off on Sunday in the 16-7 victory over Cincinnati when it held the Bengals to just 22 yards in the two possessions played. This time, in the two full possessions on the field, the Cowboys first-team defense held the Raiders to seven yards.
Nevertheless, training camp indeed is not over. And while five preseason games might have caused some serious dread from the start, now it appears having three more to play - at San Diego and Houston, then back home vs. Miami - is a darn good thing if Thursday night is any indication.
There is work to do. A lot.
And salty veteran Keith Brooking certainly has not been fooled by the practice lull this past week, nor is he buying into this game giving the coaching staff the perfect fodder for cracking the whip out here on the West Coast the next two weeks. For as he said, "You're in for hell regardless of what the circumstances are.
"It's just training camp."
And now for sure, still.
