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Understudy Sunday: Cowboys Camp Report, August 3rd

August 3, 2008

The team rested veterans Zach Thomas, Terrell Owens and Jason Witten for today’s practice, giving youngsters Kevin Burnett, Sam Hurd and Martellus Bennett an opportunity to make plays into the 11-on-11 drills. They all responded, with Burnett showing saavy at his inside linebacker spot. Hurd and Bennett got open in the full scrimmages and caught every pass thrown their way save one.

For Hurd, it was a strong bounce back from Friday’s one-on-ones, where he had trouble beating hard press coverage.

Bennett showed that he could fulfill John Garrett’s claim that he would be ready for the regular season. He got open short and deep, getting great separation and displaying great acceleration upfield when the secures the ball. It seems he can be as good as he wants to be. Barring injury, the question is the length of his learning curve.

Pre-scrimmage

– Anything to get better: Bobby Carpenter spent time with the backup wide receivers catching passes from the ball machine.

– In the positional drills, Jay Ratliff was back with the nose tackles and Marcus Spears was working again with the defensive ends.

Early Scrimmage Notes:

Tony Romo was red hot when he worked the first team offense, going six-for-six in his initial sequence despite some heavy pressure on some plays. Don’t take this as a new development. Romo has made quick decisions all throughout camp and seems to be getting faster in his decision making. The defense can pressure him, but cannot get sacks.

The best play of the series came when Romo threw a stop fade up the left sideline to Sam Hurd, who shoved both heels just in bounds and made a slow-motion fall while snatching Romo’s pass. Adam Jones was helpless to stop it.

Brad Johnson took over and had a mixed set of plays. He faced more pressure, as his protection was not as solid as Romo’s, and he had a slant dropped by Miles Austin.

Tashard Choice stood out on one play where he stepped up to blunt a Justin Rogers’ blitz, giving Johnson time to get his pass away.

Romo returned and made the type of throw you expect from a multi-year vet. Romo floated left in the pocket, away from right –side pressure and spotted Miles Austin running a go route against Evan Oglesby up the left side. Romo threw the ball wide and short; Austin spotted the ball and stepped into the shallow corner of the end zone to make the touchdown catch. Austin and Romo showed great intuition on the improvised throw.

The team then broke for a kickoff coverage drill, with emphasis on the breaking up the wedge and herding the returner into a center-of-the-field scrum.

The team returned to 11-on-11s, practicing red zone plays. The offense started with the ball at the nine and moved the ball regularly, as Romo remained hot. He completed three of four in the drill, including one to Bennett that would have gone for a score were the action live.

Johnson worked with the second unit and was also successful, running a TD draw to Tashard Choice, finding Bennett on a short route towards the left sideline. On the next play, Johnson looked off the safeties and hit Patrick Crayton beneath the post for a score.

After another special-teams drill , the WRs, RBs, TEs and QBs went 7-on-7 against the linebackers and D-backs while the offensive and defensive lines went 1-on-1 in a pass rushing drill. Some motifs from that drill:

– Erik Walden keeps getting inside pressure by starting upfield and then exploding inside. He got Doug Free this time.

– Flozell Adams remains the rock, stopping Demarcus Ware the three times they faced off.

– Andre Gurode blunted very inside rusher he faced. He’s also ready to go.

– Leonard Davis is solid in his pass protecting, though he again was bent backwards by a stiff two-handed Jay Ratliff punchout.

– Marc Colombo grabbed a jersey on one play but also looked steady on his edge.

The team ended the day with an 11-on-11 drill that worked on plays in the mid-field area. Dallas ran several packages that lined up Martellus Bennett wide, though the ball usually went elsewhere. Bennett attracted a linebacker in coverage each time. He’s got the speed to beat linebackers.

Hurd again caught a couple of passes, both against Oglesby, who had a bad day at the office after several consecutive good ones.

The “oooooooh” play came when Dallas ran a flea-flicker, with Marion Barber taking a handoff and tossing back to Romo. Adam Jones bit on the fake and Patrick Crayton ran a deep out behind him for a huge gain.

Notes:

Your throat-tightening moment of the day came in the final drill when Gurode and Jay Ratliff got tangled up on a pass play. Both lay face down on the ground for a while, neither moving. Then, Ratliff got up and Gurode slowly got up. Ratliff walked without distress to the defensive group on the far sideline. Gurode flexed his knee a few times and then went on with the drill. He didn’t miss a single play.

Written by Rafael Vela · Filed Under Training Camp | 10 Comments 

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