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It’s All In the Hands — Morning Report, July 28th

Some of the most important work in Cowboys camp took place in a quiet corner, supervised by a gentleman who isn’t even part of the Cowboys staff, at least not in an official capacity. If this work bears fruit, it may elevate the pupil to NFL superstardom and create a new career for the teacher.

Midway through practice, while most of the linebackers were taking part in punt coverage drills, OLB coach Paul Pasqualoni and injured OLB Greg Ellis moved to a corner of the near end zone, where they worked extensively with Demarcus Ware on his edge rushing.

The tutorial was comprehensive. While Pasqualoni played the offensive tackle and Ellis watched — and at times stepped in to show Ware correct hand placement and technique — Ware was schooled in the proper placement of his initial punch into the tackle’s shoulder, how to coordinate his hip roll with that punch, in order to counter the tackle’s punchout and knock the lineman off balance, how to use his outside hand to knock the tackle’s hands free from his own chest, and how to duck under the lineman’s outside shoulder once the chop had been executed.

Ware was shown each element of the edge rusher separately and then tried to choreograph the entire package. Pasqualoni capped the mini-session by tracing a tight arc to the quarterback just outside the tackle’s shoulders. He then took a wider, more looping arc, showing how Ware has been rushing most of the time.

It was the football equivalent of a Vulcan mind-meld, where Ellis’ superior knowledge and hand-fighting technique is being imparted to the more explosive but inexperienced Ware. Anybody who paid close attention to the outside linebackers last year knows that Ware can explode off the ball better than most linebackers in the game and can close with anybody. However, he lacks an extensive repertoire and too often was locked up by tackles.

Ellis, while older and far less speedy, was more effective as a rusher because he understood how to set up lineman, get their hands off his pads and drive past them. While Ware was rushing fast and wide, Ellis was rushing steadily and directly at quarterbacks. If Ware can actually apply these hand-to-hand skills he can add several sacks to his total on improved technique alone.

Perhaps Jerry Jones should talk to Greg Ellis this week about a coaching career.

Happier and Faster

One quality I’ve noticed about Wade Phillips’ practice in contrast to Bill Parcells’ is their pace. While Parcells’ sessions were my no means slow, the Cowboys are operating at a faster overall pace. The time of each individual or scrimmage session is about the same, twelve to fifteen minutes, but the coaches are cramming more into those slots. The players don’t seem sloppy, meaning they’re getting the hang of their schemes.

You also notice the absence of Parcells’ paranoia; in his San Antonio camp, fans were only allowed to watch from the home sideline and the offensive action was kept as far away from those fans as possible. The same was true in Oxnard, where the quarterbacks worked on a second field far removed from anybody except the coaches and press.

This year the right end zone seats are open and fans are brought down to field level. During the final 11-on-11 scrimmage Jerry Jones was busy signing autographs and taking photos with groups on the near sideline. This type of thing was unheard of when the Tuna ran the show. It appears Bilious Bill had Jerry on his best behavior too back then.

Little Things of a Different Sort

The session began with the players breaking into groups and jogging three quarter speed through certain play groupings. This is exactly how Parcells ran his camp sessions. After several minutes of this the team met in the middle of the field to stretch and then broke into group training.

The defense went to the left half of the field, with the defensive backs working on their line of scrimmage jams and their drops. The defensive linemen, who were in the far left corner, worked on their stances, their technique and their gap assignments. The linebackers worked a lot on controlling their gaps, not being pushed too far outside and not allowing blockers to turn them inside and losing their contain on wide plays.

In fact, wide running plays appeared to be the theme of this practice. In the individual run drills, OL coach Tony Sparano split his line into OT and TE pairs and interior line groupings. The TE coach worked on combination blocks on the perimeter while Sparano tutored the center and guards on how to get off the ball, double the nose guard or strong side tackle and get to the second level and engage inside linebackers.

Later, Sparano would take a center and half a line, drilling frontside blocking on wide plays and than backside contain. Eventually, he brough the entire group together and had the lines and tight ends coordinate inside running and backside running plays.

One tid bit from the drills — don’t expect any less pulling and trapping from the line this year. Sparano had both guards, Kyle Kosier and Leonard Davis, trapping down the line and pulling extensively.

At the same time, the defense began its drills by emphasizing pursuit. A coach would throw a bubble screen to a receiver and the corner covering him was instructed to grab the receiver but then let him go. The remaining eleven players would have to track him down. It’s clear the Cowboys coaches have noticed how much hay Washington has made running Santana Moss on this type of play and will not be burned by it this year.

Later, the offense and defense engaged in a nine on nine running drill; while the starting QBs and WRs drilled with CBs on the far field, the backup QBs led the offense, minus receivers, against a nine man defense, which was missing cornerbacks. All the plays were runs. Most of them were strethes and pitches. The offense got some big gains on cutbacks, especially to their right behind Leonard Davis and Jim Molinaro. The wide plays were mostly contained by the defense.

Marion Barber got some “oohs” from the crown when he survived a Bobby Carpenter lunge on the left sideline. Barber wagged his finger at Carpenter because the LB’s blow didn’t knock him off his feet, but Carpenter did drive Barber out of bounds before he could turn the play upfield. Of the backups, Carpenter was far more visible than Kevin Burnett. Akin Ayodele was the most consistent ILB, though Bradie James has regained the flash he had in ‘05, The Stay-puffed Marshmallow Man who was huffing and puffing on any wide runs last year is long gone.

The team then had a punt coverage drill that tested the gunners and the men who are supposed to block them. After the team split again into unit work, the special teams worked on kickoff blocking. The kicking team threw a couple of onside kicks into the mix and Kevin Burnett smartly smothered one for the receiving team.

The team ended with a long 11-on-11 passing drill. The defense played a lot of man coverage and prevented the Cowboys’ QBs from throwing downfield for the first dozen plays or so, forcing dumpoffs to backs. Tony Romo did finally get the ball downfield, connecting with T.O. on a go route down the left side, where Owens outfought Alan Ball in a manner that would have made Michael Irvin proud. On the next play Romo dropped a 15 yard completion over the linebackers to Terry Glenn, who found a spot between the lines of coverage.

Notes:

– I didn’t get a good look at backup RT Jim Molinaro but LT Pat McQuistan looks solid in pass protection. He sets properly, doesn’t overextend, closes off any inside counter moves and has the quick feet to drive DEs wide once they commit to an outside rush. I didn’t see anybody he blocked get close to the quarterback.

Keep this in mind: during the run drills, Sparano worked McQuistan at both LT and RT. I’m guessing he would be the first option at RT if Flozell Adams returns and Marc Colombo’s rehab drags on.

– I saw a lot of the same two TE packages the Cowboys ran last year. It seems Jason Garrett may have tinkered with the offense some, but didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. When that wheel finished 4th in scoring last year, that seems to be the sane approach.

– The DBs are being better schooled in stripping the ball. They ripped several out during drills.

– The crowd loves a showman. The quarterbacks and receivers drilled right in front of the near sideline, so needless to say, Terrell Owens got most fans’ attention. They cheered loudly when he made a simple catch on his first drill and he played to their applause, turning and bowing in mock appreciation of his meaningless catch.

– It’s early, but I think Oliver Hoyte has a solid lead for the fullback spot. He’s working with the first team offense. He also shows some much improved hands, catching a one hander in drills and later making a one handed catch of a flare in the eleven on eleven drills. Hoyte was one dimensional last year and has clearly worked on his route running and receiving.

– Kickers Martin Gramatica and Nick Folk looked like kicker 1 and kicker 1A in drills today. Both have strong accurate legs and the starting spot will go to the guy who performs best when the chips are down. I’ll say this — they both look 100% better than the lame Mike Vanderjagt did at this time last year.

– The Cowboys used this line several times in their first team nickel package: Demarcus Ware — LE; Marcus Spears – DT; Stephen Bowen — DT; Bobby Carpenter — RE

So Easily Led Astray

There was a surreal moment early in practice during the nine on nine running drills where almost nobody was following the action. The sideline crowd was oohing and aahing over catches made in one on one passing drills on the left half of the field while most of the crowd in the end zone stands had its back turned to the field begging cabbage patch mascot Rowdy to throw them souvenirs from one of the upper decks.

Here’s hoping the pads come back on this afternoon. The Cowboys are hitting when they scrimmage.

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