Cowboys Roundtable discussion: Preseason reviews and previews

Every week, we gather to discuss the latest news about the Dallas Cowboys and seek our writer’s perspective on each headline. Welcome back to the roundtable. This week we have Tom Ryle, David Howman, Jess Haynie, RJ Ochoa, and Brian Martin.

What are the three big positives and the three negatives from the Dallas Cowboys first preseason game against the L.A. Rams?

We saw several Cowboys players, particularly undrafted free agents and lesser-known names who made strong impressions. Notably, Nate Thomas, Marist Liufau, Phil Mafah, Zion Childress, and Traeshon Holden (wide receiver) all flashed potential and are pushing for roster spots. We also witnessed a great one-handed grab by Israel Mukuamu that was a real defensive highlight.

On the negative side, discipline still seems to be an issue. The Cowboys were flagged 11 times, including pre-snap and sideline infractions, issues that head coach Brian Schottenheimer openly criticized post-game. The other major issue was in the run defense where the L.A. Rams gashed Dallas on the ground, racking up 181 rushing yards on 38 carries. Both of these major weaknesses were a problem last year and so far look to have not been resolved through the offseason.

Tom: I don’t know how big any of these are, because preseason games are not always reliable indicators of where a team is, but here are some things that I thought might be notable:

Positives

1. The offensive line held up surprisingly well, only allowing one sack and opening up some nice holes.
2. The running game was nicely productive with a 5.5 ypc average, although that was largely due to someone we’ll mention later.
3. While the defense got pushed around a lot, there were still some strong performances, led by Israel Mukuamu. Rookies Zion Childress, Mike Smith, Alijah Clark, and James Shemar all put up some nice stats.

Negatives

1. Run defense. Again and again the Rams gashed Dallas. One stat that was particularly disappointing was that rookie NT Jay Toia had no stats, despite being on the field for over half the defensive snaps. That may not be a true indicator of his contributions, but it seems a bit concerning.
2. Third down woes. The offense just struggled here. Defensively they didn’t give up a lot of conversions to Los Angeles, but the long ones were painful.
3. Injuries. The reason we all kinda hate preseason.

Howman: Not to be a downer but there was really only one big positive I took from this game: the players bounced back in the second half after a slow start. They got punched in the mouth to start the game, but they didn’t hang their heads.

As far as negatives, start with them getting punched in the mouth to start the game. Tom stole my thunder on this, as the run defense was especially bad. And, of course, Joe Milton was hardly what we were expecting/hoping for.

RJ: I’m with Howman in that, objectively speaking, there weren’t a ton of positives to take...