Blogging The Boys
It may not truly count or be remembered much longer than a few days, but the Dallas Cowboys are in the win column for the first time under first time head coach Brian Schottenheimer. They did so by defeating the Atlanta Falcons 31-13 at AT&T Stadium on Friday night to conclude the preseason. While coming out on top on the scoreboard in front of home fans is certainly nice, the way the Cowboys got this result was much more satisfactory when it comes to now turning full attention towards the regular season.
The Cowboys came out looking like a team inspired to put a certain style on tape and prove to other teams, or mostly to themselves, they are capable of winning in a complementary way. Their depth players fighting for roster spots showed up from start to finish, the offensive play-calling was slightly more dynamic to put these players in position to make plays, and the defense took the ball away twice and had a sack for the first time all preseason. Dallas also went three-for-three scoring touchdowns in the red zone, a clear sign of progress for a team that was shutout twice in the red zone in the second week of the preseason.
It won’t take long to sort out if this game was more of a statement about how good the Cowboys are capable of being, or much more about ineptitude from the Falcons, as the intensity the Cowboys will face in 12 days on the road at the Philadelphia Eagles will be a night and day difference from all preseason reps. Still, with everything circling the franchise right now unrelated to the game being played between the lines, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a win of any form to some extent.
Here are several of the things that stood out for the Cowboys in this win, from all three phases of the game.
In their first two losses this preseason, the Cowboys defense was able to get near the quarterback on a few occasions, but not affect them enough to not allow big plays. Finishing with sacks had to be a point of emphasis against the Falcons, and James Houston did just that on the first drive of the game. It was the type of big play this defense needed to set the offense back and eventually get a stop, as it came immediately after Easton Stick completed a 24-yard pass down the middle for a first down.
An underrated part of the play Houston recorded his first sack on was the coverage from Darius Harris underneath. Harris was able to drop perfectly into the throwing lane of Stick’s first read, giving him nowhere to go in time to avoid Houston screaming off the edge. This would just be a small taste of something the Cowboys did at a high level all game, committing numbers to coverage and taking the ball away with interceptions by cornerback Robert Rochell, rookie linebacker Shemar James, and a handful...
