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ARLINGTON – Jerry Jones didn’t lose his sense of humor watching his Dallas Cowboys get thumped 24-6 by the Houston Texans in Thursday night’s battle-of-the-backups preseason finale.
“Men,” the owner said to reporters as he walked toward the locker room, “we had several guys that looked good. They all sat on the bench for 60 minutes.”
With most of the starters from both teams watching from the sidelines, the Super Bowl-minded Texans showed off their depth while scoring in all four quarters and outgaining the Cowboys in total yards, 427-219.
For Dallas, the outcome underscored one of the reasons why they are 22-26 since they last reached the playoffs in 2009. Poor drafts and other personnel mistakes mean the Cowboys usually enter vulnerable territory when they have a rash of injuries like they did last season when they finished their second-straight 8-8 season with five defensive starters on injured reserve.
Unfortunately Dallas, it already has several defensive linemen either rehabbing from injuries or out for the season, a list that includes Anthony Spencer (knee), Jay Ratliff (groin, hamstring) and Tyrone Crawford (torn Achilles tendon).
As much as the Cowboys tried to prevent another injury by keeping all of their starters on the sideline, they didn’t get through the game unscathed.
Key backup defensive tackle Sean Lissemore suffered what Jones said could be a concussion, putting his availability for the season opener against the New York Giants on Sept. 8 in jeopardy.
“Obviously, their group played better than our group,” Dallas coach Jason Garrett said. “You can talk a lot of different ways about that. I think in some ways it does reflect on the depth of the football team right now. But it was a quick turnaround (from last Friday’s 24-18 dress rehearsal win over Cincinnati).”
The most glaring weakness for the Cowboys (2-3) was their inability to stop Houston’s ground game. With rookie backs Cierre Wood (107 yards on 19 carries) and Dennis Johnson (79 yards on 17 attempts) leading the way, the Texans amassed 190 rushing yards.
“It seemed like we weren’t getting lined up very quickly on defense and some of that goes to a lot of young players playing and those guys are responsible for making those calls and adjustments,” Garrett said.
Powered by their running game, Houston (3-1) put together three drives of 80 or more yards. The Texans’ touchdowns came on a 5-yard run by Johnson, a 27-yard pass from Case Kennum to Lestar Jean and a 21-yard pass from T.J. Yates to Andy Cruse.
Dan Bailey kicked field goals of 38 and 39 yards for the Cowboys. Kyle Orton started at quarterback for Dallas and threw only one pass in one series before giving way to Alex Tanney, who was 17-of-31 for 177 yards with an interception playing the rest of the way.
The Texans sacked Tanney seven times.
Houston so thoroughly whipped Dallas that Texans undrafted rookie A.J. Bouye followed his interception of an Tanney pass in the fourth period by celebrating on the star at midfield ala Terrell Owens. The Texans received a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebration, an infraction that prompted Houston defensive coordinator and former Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips to chew out Bouye.
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“Men,” the owner said to reporters as he walked toward the locker room, “we had several guys that looked good. They all sat on the bench for 60 minutes.”
With most of the starters from both teams watching from the sidelines, the Super Bowl-minded Texans showed off their depth while scoring in all four quarters and outgaining the Cowboys in total yards, 427-219.
For Dallas, the outcome underscored one of the reasons why they are 22-26 since they last reached the playoffs in 2009. Poor drafts and other personnel mistakes mean the Cowboys usually enter vulnerable territory when they have a rash of injuries like they did last season when they finished their second-straight 8-8 season with five defensive starters on injured reserve.
Unfortunately Dallas, it already has several defensive linemen either rehabbing from injuries or out for the season, a list that includes Anthony Spencer (knee), Jay Ratliff (groin, hamstring) and Tyrone Crawford (torn Achilles tendon).
As much as the Cowboys tried to prevent another injury by keeping all of their starters on the sideline, they didn’t get through the game unscathed.
Key backup defensive tackle Sean Lissemore suffered what Jones said could be a concussion, putting his availability for the season opener against the New York Giants on Sept. 8 in jeopardy.
“Obviously, their group played better than our group,” Dallas coach Jason Garrett said. “You can talk a lot of different ways about that. I think in some ways it does reflect on the depth of the football team right now. But it was a quick turnaround (from last Friday’s 24-18 dress rehearsal win over Cincinnati).”
The most glaring weakness for the Cowboys (2-3) was their inability to stop Houston’s ground game. With rookie backs Cierre Wood (107 yards on 19 carries) and Dennis Johnson (79 yards on 17 attempts) leading the way, the Texans amassed 190 rushing yards.
“It seemed like we weren’t getting lined up very quickly on defense and some of that goes to a lot of young players playing and those guys are responsible for making those calls and adjustments,” Garrett said.
Powered by their running game, Houston (3-1) put together three drives of 80 or more yards. The Texans’ touchdowns came on a 5-yard run by Johnson, a 27-yard pass from Case Kennum to Lestar Jean and a 21-yard pass from T.J. Yates to Andy Cruse.
Dan Bailey kicked field goals of 38 and 39 yards for the Cowboys. Kyle Orton started at quarterback for Dallas and threw only one pass in one series before giving way to Alex Tanney, who was 17-of-31 for 177 yards with an interception playing the rest of the way.
The Texans sacked Tanney seven times.
Houston so thoroughly whipped Dallas that Texans undrafted rookie A.J. Bouye followed his interception of an Tanney pass in the fourth period by celebrating on the star at midfield ala Terrell Owens. The Texans received a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebration, an infraction that prompted Houston defensive coordinator and former Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips to chew out Bouye.
Continue reading...