The Dallas Cowboys and the Cincinnati Bengals were the first teams to take the field in the 2010 season, for the Hall of Fame game. Both the Cowboys and the Bengals had slow starts in a relatively boring game. The Cowboys defense had a little jolt in the 2nd quarter with a couple of turnovers, thanks to the Bengals QB poor play. The only time Cincinnati got into the red zone in the entire game was when WR Jordan Shipley was tackled about a yard short of the end zone on a punt return, which was arguably the best play of the game. Now I'll go over the disappointments and encouragements of the Dallas Cowboys first preseason game.
The Disappointments:
Once again we got to see the Dallas Cowboys offense struggle in the red zone, which brought back the bad memories from last season's games. Romo had some wild throws going on Sunday night in the red zone and needed to get rid of the ball a little quicker. I was hoping to see Marrion Barber in the goal line offense powering into the end zone, instead I saw Dallas stay in shotgun, and have Felix Jones in for the majority of goal line plays. Seeing that makes me wonder if this was a strategy thing, trying not to reveal anything good or bad in the goal line offense, or they were just trying to keep it simple. Either way I wasn't impressed with the Cowboys 1st team offense having to convert 3rd downs on their first drive. Finally for a team that wanted to be a run first offense last year sure didn't show that philosophy this year!
The Encouraging:
I was surprised and pleased when Romo hit Roy on a 3rd down post, which was a sight for sore eyes. Doug Free played a nice game as well, not allowing a sack and being solid against the run. Kicker David Buehler also had a solid day making 3/4 field goals, ranging form 22-34 yards, showing he can make the kicks Nick Folk couldn't make last season, which is the reason he was released. I knew Jason Hatcher and Stephen Bowen were capable of taking over for DE Marcus Spears, but I was still happy to see Bowen getting sacks instead of just QB pressure. Finally the young linebacker really put on a show Sunday night with 2 picks and a couple of sacks. It was good to see Dallas get turnovers, hopefully that will transfer to the regular season.
Sadly we are only in preseason and the real season is a little less than a month away, however, a little football is better than nothing and I still like to see my Cowboys play. GO COWBOYS!!!
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