Cowboys limp home from Denver
August 17, 2008 4:42 PM
Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley
Like most of the country, I was more interested in Michael Phelps' chase for an eighth gold medal Saturday than a couple of preseason football games. But through the magic of technology and a six-pack of Diet Coke I've now watched Cowboys-Broncos and Commanders-Jets in HD.
We'll start with Cowboys-Broncos, which caused Ed "Guns of Navarone" Hochuli to throw a season's worth of flags -- in the first quarter. As one of my pals texted me this morning during church: "Cowboys encourage Super Bowl hopes ... in Denver."
That would've made the perfect headline because this vaunted secondary we've been telling you about was shredded by Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler. And don't you wish players and coaches would spare us from this "we played as vanilla as we could" justification for looking awful in the preseason? To listen to Cowboys players, it seemed like they purposely allowed Cutler to begin the game 12-of-12 to give him some confidence heading into the season.
Dallas Morning News Cowboys beat writer Todd Archer accounted for the poor showing here, and he placed part of the blame on Tony Romo, who was 6-of-9 for 33 yards but wasn't able to lead the offense on a scoring drive. And as bad as the offense looked at times, the defense was worse. The Cowboys gave up 238 yards and 15 first downs in the first half.
The Cowboys managed to trim the margin to 14-7 shortly before the half because backup quarterback Brad Johnson and third-receiver candidate Miles Austin displayed some nice chemistry. Unfortunately for Austin, he suffered a knee injury on the ensuing kickoff and had to leave the game.
During a TV interview in the waning moments of the first half, Romo suggested the "thin air" may have contributed to him missing a wide-open Sam Hurd on what would've been a 74-yard touchdown. He's developed a wry sense of humor, so I'm hoping he was kidding.
Toward the end of the interview, he joked how writers would overreact to Saturday's loss, and at least one local columnist took the bait. But upon further review, maybe Jacques Taylor of the DMN wasn't harsh enough. He's not concerned with wins or losses in preseason (nor should he be), but at some point you need to display some signs that last season's 13 wins weren't an illusion. Last December, the Cowboys' offense made the mistake of thinking it would be able to flip a switch in January and roll through the playoffs. We all know how that worked out.
In addition to losing Austin to a knee injury that could prevent him from playing in the season-opener, starting defensive end Chris Canty suffered an injury to his hip early in Saturday's game.
Calvin Watkins dealt with "5 key issues" that the Cowboys were facing. He puts a positive spin on a fairly negative evening.
I'll have several more observations on both games later this evening.
Dallas Cowboys, Jay Cutler, Tony Romo, Chris Canty
