The Dallas Cowboys Joint Practice Created A LOT of Questions… im worried

The Dallas Cowboys Joint Practice Created A LOT of Questions… im worried

Yesterday, the Cowboys hosted their one and only joint practice with the Los Angeles Rams. And I have a list of things I took away from that practice, including the offensive line, the defensive line, the Cowboys secondary. This isn’t going to be a long- winded intro. Let’s just go ahead and get into it. [Applause] Yesterday was the first time that the Cowboys got to play external talent. And while I try not to overreact to training camp clips because at the end of the day, we talking about practice, I still feel like it’s a good measuring stick for any team, especially when you’re watching these joint practices. So, my first takeaway, and I have no idea really how to structure this video. Do I talk about the good first or the bad first or do I just sprinkle it all in together? I have no idea. So, we’re just going to kind of roll with it and talk about whatever we want. Takeaway number one, the Cowboys run game was not good. like at all. Dallas could not block that Rams front. There were way too many plays where the running backs just had nowhere to go. A Rams defender was knifing in the back field. Someone would miss a block or just get ran over, pushed into the running backs. Like, they just couldn’t move the ball. It didn’t matter if it was Javvante Williams or Jaden Blue. Didn’t matter who the running back was, there was nowhere to go. Just felt like the offensive line looked disjointed. If it wasn’t one guy getting beat, it was another guy missing a block. They just could not work in unison outside of maybe two or three runs, one by Williams, one by Jaden Blue. It just wasn’t good all the way around. And I can’t lie, it was kind of demoralizing. We’ve seen this before last year dealing with an offense that has to play out of second and nine, third and seven because you just can’t run the ball. And that’s kind of what it looked like yesterday. There were just way too many defenders winning at the point of attack. Offensive linemen not sustaining their blocks, getting worked at the line of scrimmage. And I hate even talking about it. I don’t like to be negative. I like to talk about the good things with this team. And there were good things yesterday and have hope for these young guys and Clayton Adams, but yesterday was just not a step forward for me in feeling any type of way about the run game. Now, it’s still early. You have a first year right guard, a secondyear center, a firstear left tackle, and Nate Thomas who hasn’t played in like 800 days or something. And then Brock Hoffman and TJ Bass were switching in and out for Tyler Smith, who is out with his own injury. So, is that 100% the best it can get for the Cowboys week one offensive line? No. You really miss Tyler Smith when he’s not out there, but we do have to remember this is a young unit. It’s going to take time for these guys to really gel, especially with the injuries. You have Tyler Gayton missing time, Tyler Smith missing time, you know, Booker is still young trying to figure it out. These dudes need to actually play football together against people that aren’t their own teammates. And I expect them to get better as the year goes on and when you get Gayton back and when Booker gets more reps under his belt, Tyler Smith gets back in there. I’m not completely down and out right now about the offensive line, about the run game. I think it’s going to take a couple weeks to really get to where you want it to be. I’ve heard people talking about this is more of a back half of the season type thing. The run game might get better as the year goes on and it might just be a stalemate to start the season, which means the Cowboys are going to have to really rely on the passing game. The passing game is going to have to pick up this offensive’s slack. And luckily for the Cowboys, they still have a good passing game with Lamb, Pickkins, and Ferguson. Pickkins and Lamb. Those two once again are as good as advertised. It doesn’t matter who they’re playing against. Both had some big plays. A couple offensive pass interference calls that didn’t go their way, but still making some big plays. A nice chunk play down the sideline to CD. He got loose for a big gain. Pickins made plays on some comeback routes, some hitches, high point in the ball. I believe he had a touchdown. Another one was called back for an offensive pass interference. Both of them were doing damage in the short and medium parts of the field. So did Jake Ferguson. Caught a couple outlet passes. Had a nice catch I think on a bootleg. It’s kind of hard to tell or remember from all the videos that I saw. Might have picked up 15 20 yards in a game. Overall, the passing game looked good. I would just like to see more, and maybe we’ll see it later on in the season, just not yesterday, but more from the vertical passing game, stressing the top of the defense, making the defense actually respect the deep ball. It was just a lot of quick game stuff yesterday. Then again, like I said, it’s practice. Shotty Clayton Adams. I don’t think they want to show their hand too much in these practices, especially against the Rams as far as scheme, run game stuff, route combinations, but even being as vanilla as it could be yesterday. Thought the passing game held up really, really well. And I’m excited about what we’re going to see this season. Dak might throw for 8,000 yards. All right. on the other field which didn’t have nearly as many people watching it. It feels like maybe more Rams reporters were, but the C Cowboys defense was kind of up and down throughout the day. There were good moments by the linebackers. Deone Clark had some nice run fits. Maris Leafoul continued to show up in the run game. I saw a nice run fill from Jack Sandborn. I think there were bright moments and some flashes from your linebackers in particular. I think it’s really easy to say at this point based on what we’ve seen in practices. Perion Winfrey is probably your best nose tackle. He easily, I would say, coming from the UFFL, he’s been the only one that has consistently shown up and held up in the middle of that defense. He had a nice play yesterday where he blew up the interior and had a tackle for loss on Kairen Williams. I just have consistently noticed him throughout these practices. Winfrey previously played for the Browns and the Jets maybe and then took a year off, went to the UFFL, and now he’s back in the NFL. I’ve been really impressed by him. He’s a big body. I need to go back and watch and see if I can find some of his old NFL tape or even UFL stuff. I’m kind of excited that Perion Winfrey has shown up like he has because that defensive interior, it needs it. I didn’t see much of anything about Mazy. He might have got in there and mixed it up a little bit. I know he was dealing with knee soreness. I’m not really sure how much that affected his reps yesterday. I just feel like at this point, you’re not going to be able to rely on Mazy as a big interior piece. Like Jerry said, if they’re not going to go outside the organization for it, Perion Winfrey is the guy. So, I liked what I saw from him and the linebackers, but like I said, an up and down day for that unit. This Kairen Williams run is going to have Cowboys fans going crazy because it’s a simple toss outside. He gets to the edge untouched for a 25 30 yard touchdown which is reminiscent of what we saw last year from the Cowboys unit. Granted, this was one play in practice. These guys are switching in and out. First team, second team guys are out there. It’s not always your starting defense versus their starting offense. You’re just really trying to get these guys work. Everyone out there is not going to be, you know, the starting 11 for Dallas. This is what the run run defense is going to look like. But it just didn’t look great. I think people are going to be panicking about that. And I can’t lie, didn’t make me feel great about the run defense either. I think we’re just a little scarred from what we’ve seen in the past, especially in 2020 and 2024. The run defense, the defense as a whole could not stop a nosebleleed. So to kind of see Kairen Williams taking one the distance from 25, 30 yards out, completely untouched doesn’t give you a ton of optimism, but once again, there were still bright moments. I liked what I saw from the linebackers. Hopefully Winfrey can continue to get better and Matt Eberfloose continue to figure out the wrinkles. Best guy, you know, playing the best player at each position. Maybe gives this defense a little bit of a better look than that one play in particular. As for the secondary, I think it was kind of the same thing. This was a good litmus test for two areas in particular. One, the Cowboys run game, the offensive line, the Rams defensive line with Braden Fisk and Jared Verse. like those guys are good on the defensive side. The Rams wide receiver room versus the Cowboys corners which are decimated with injuries right now. Puka, Devonte Adam, Adam Adams, Tutu Atwell, that’s a heck of a wide receiver trio and they’re going up against guys like Troy Pride, Andrew Booth, and it just isn’t going to end well over the course of an entire practice. The secondary was given up chunk plays. It really just comes down to that unit getting healthy as soon as possible because out of all the corner depth that Dallas had or should have, they just don’t because of the injuries. I don’t think they got completely slaughtered throughout the day. You’re just going to have to get better at corner. You got to get better players out there. It doesn’t matter what Matt Eberloose is able to cook up. That’s just a really tough wide receiver trio to ask your backups, backups, backups, try to stick with. So again, that’s my observations. I apologize that this wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in this video because yesterday just wasn’t a great practice from Dallas. But listen, listen. Some people get mad at me for telling the truth and not being positive. I want you guys to be 100% aware of what’s going on. But listen, I am glad that they had this practice for Shotti as a firstear head coach. It’s going to be back to the drawing board. Guys got to do what the guys got to do to get it cleaned up on both sides of the ball. You didn’t go an entire training camp just facing off against each other, then you get punched in the mouth week one against Philly and then you’re surprised. This is a good reset. I’m glad that they did this. I wish it would have been more than one practice though. Maybe the Cowboys, you know, come back the second practice and maybe punch the Rams in the mouth. So, I’m not going to be overreacting because it is practice. There were good moments, there were not so good moments. This is just kind of how it goes. That’s how I expect the season to go. But I want you guys to let me know what you think down below in the comments. Since you’ve made it this far, go check out my Cowboys versus Rams pre-season preview video where I talk about who to watch, what to watch for, and so many other things for the Cowboys. So, click the video that just popped up on your screen right now. Thank you guys for watching. If you enjoyed, hit that subscribe button, like this video because it really helps out the channel. And I promise for all of you that are still here, I have not forgotten about that Tan Holden video. I just watched his all 22 from Oregon. I’m starting to compile his videos from training camp this year as well. And I have a really fun video planned. So, I’ll see you guys soon. Bye.

I have a couple questions about the Cowboys after that practice………. some good, some bad.

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