Friday night was the inaugural game for Dallas in the newly constructed (and $1.2 billion dollar) Cowboys Stadium against The Tennessee Titans. A preseason game, it's true, but a great start to the new era in a new stadium.
The 30-10 win was much deserved and made evident that the team has definitely improved since last week's loss to The Raiders. It seemed like everybody on offense got their hands on the ball at some point, and the defense was a little tighter than last week (especially the cornerbacks, but keep in mind T-New and Mike Jenkins didn't play against Oakland.)
Romo went 18 for 24 and 192 yards, although there weren't any of his usual bombs, there isn't a T.O. to go out and get them, so I understand. He didn't have a touchdown pass, but was impressive as usual, most notably driving the team 79 yards in 6 plays with only :58 seconds left in the first half.
That's what we expect of Romo and he delivered as usual.The running backs were stiffled a bit, but that's no reason whatsoever to lose confidence in any of them... even Keon Lattimore made an impression (albeit against a 3rd string defense.) Felix Jones turned heads after turning a screen pass into a 42 yard gain. Barber's longest run was for 8, but he fought for yards when it counted and he has the distinction of driving home the first touchdown in Cowboys Stadium history.
Pretty much all the receivers got their hands on the ball and in my opinion the sweetest catch was Sam Hurd's 17 yard spinning grab, followed closely by Kevin Ogletree's one handed grab of a fade in the end zone. 4th and Long star Jesse Holly even got lucky when an almost intercepted pass bounced off a teammate's helmet and landed in his hands.
The tight-ends made some great plays too, led by Jason Witten, the pro and Martellus Bennett, the beast (Beans & Rice.) Bennett led the team in receiving yards with 65 and Witten racked up 46. 3rd string hopeful, Rodney Hannah also brought in the final touchdown of the game on a 22 yard pass from Stephen McGee.
As good as the offense is, it still seems the defense is the strongest aspect of this team (not even going to mention Special Teams because they need too much work!)
Tennesse's offense, who ran all over the place last season with Chris Johnson and Lendale White, couldn't move the ball at all and didn't even have a first down going into the 2nd quarter. Steve Octavian deflected a pass that Stephen Hodge picked off, and Jason Williams got to the QB in the end zone which resulted in a safety. Mike Jenkins made a great case for a starting spot and Sensabaugh showed some good, and some bad, but still a huge improvement over Roy Williams.
30-10 is a good feeling... it was a good showing to open the new stadium and besides a minor Mike Jenkins ankle problem and a Brandon Williams knee sprain, no one was injured. Things are looking good, but amid the celebration is reason for concern.
Penalties...Penalties...Penalties... This has got to stop... more false starts than I can count, holding penalties, an offsides, ect...ect... This has just got to stop... This team could have blanked the Titans if not for a few crucial and foolish penalties. Even the ref got sick of it, announcing a false start as ,"movement by everyone but the center"... which tells me that Cory Proctor is not the guy to play center.
Another little problem is Nick Folk's missed kick. He went from, 'Ice Water' to 'Mudslide.' I don't know if it's a mental thing because the Cowboys brought in David Buehler for kickoffs, but I'm just not used to Folk miss
ing kicks. In all fairness a 46 yarder isn't a sure thing, but this is the dude who had to kick two 53 yard field goals back to back, to win against Buffalo on that spectatular Monday Night Game.All in all, I'm more excited than ever about the season kicking off... last week gave me a little uneasy feeling, but this game reminded me of what this team can do and reassured all my doubts. Let's Go Cowboys!!
Next week Dallas hosts San Fransisco and for the last preseason game they head up to Minnesota.
No comments:
Post a Comment