When the first offense played the first defense yesterday, the Os had it — every time. They scored quickly, they scored deliberately. They moved the ball with short passes and long ones. They ran wide and inside. Martin and the second year offensive skill position guys could take last year’s dangerous attack to an even higher, more thrilling level.
Of course, their effectiveness may be down to the poor level of defensive competition they face. This year’s front seven is, at this point in the pre-season, the thinnest I’ve ever seen. The athleticism of lines past simply isn’t there. [SIZE=+0]Demarcus Lawrence[/SIZE] may have several sacks in his surgically repaired foot, and Henry Melton may have the juice to replace Jason Hatcher, but there was nobody on the field yesterday with the power and speed to overpower an offensive lineman. Martez Wilson made a play later in the scrimmage, but he was working against the Cowboys second offensive line. When the first strings squared off, the first offensive line kept [SIZE=+0]Tony Romo[/SIZE]’s jersey clean and his passing lanes clear.
In years past, there were always two or three big time athletes on the line. I remember Dearcus Ware’s rookie camp in Oxnard. In an early rush drill, he went one-on-one with Dan Campbell, a big 255 lb. tight end signed in free agency for his blocking skills. In this particular drill, an orange cone was put seven yards behind the line, at the spot where the quarterback would set after a deep drop. The rushers job was to fight his way to the cone and touch it.
Ware’s approach was brutal, swift and effective. He hit Campbell head on, lifted him off the ground and dropped him onto the cone. Embarrassed at having the cone administered as a suppository in front of hundreds of stunned fans, Campbell slammed the ground in disgust. Ware had put everybody on notice that he was not going to be stopped, and nobody ever again stopped him in a Cowboys camp. Just last year, Ware looped inside on a stunt and put prize rookie [SIZE=+0]Travis Frederick[/SIZE] on his keyster. (See the photo.)
In that same ’05 camp, and unsung rookie named Jay Ratliff made a habit of getting into veteran guard Marco Rivera’s face mask. Ratliff bowed Rivera back with punch outs to the jaw, until the vet grew angry and started a fight. Again, a rookie showed that he was physically capable of overpowering any opponent.
When I scanned the lines yesterday, I saw no defensive lineman, inside or out, with the physical tools to emulate Ware or Ratliff. [SIZE=+0]Ken Bishop[/SIZE], Dartwan Bush and [SIZE=+0]Davon Coleman[/SIZE] try hard, but they’re all short, bowling-ball type players. There are no high-cut Leon Lett, Ratliff-build defensive tackles, with the long legs and longer arms needed to crack pockets in quick time. There’s no edge rusher with the get off to turn the corner low and hard.
There are fighters in the Cowboys secondary, but they’ll grow tired over the course of the season if the front office cannot build a rush in front of them. And that’s the most worrisome note on this 4th of August. The Cowboys rush, so woeful in 2013, looks even worse today. The Cowboys put all their eggs in the Lawrence basket and have seen that plan fracture, literally and figuratively
http://cowboyszone.com/2014/08/rushed-blue-white-scrimmage-notes.html
