3 revelations that emerged from Cowboys’ preseason opener
The Dallas Cowboys’ comeback against the Jacksonsville Jaguars in the exhibition opener fell short. ending in a 28-23 loss at AT&T Stadium. It was the first of three games the Cowboys will play in the quote-unquote meaningless preseason. In the big picture, preseason games mean very little to a team’s season. Winning isn’t the primary objective like it is when games matter.
Instead the Cowboys will focus on getting units some work together to build continuity, getting young guys reps in real games, but mainly just leave each game without any big injuries and it’s a win at the end of the day. This doesn’t mean fans and analysts can’t find some important things to take from these games though. Players breakout, or teams show new wrinkles in their game plans just to name a couple. Here are some things the contest revealed for Dallas.
Jalen Tolbert has taken a clear second-year leap
(Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Jalen Tolbert continued to show he has progressed the way folks in the organization and fanbase hoped he would. He probably had the best game of any offensive player in the first half, when Jaguars starters and key reserves were playing.
He had two receptions for 29 yards and a touchdown, which doesn’t seem like a ton, but the offense wasn’t doing much at all before he scored the teams only first half touchdown. He also had a beautiful deep ball grab on the sideline taken back by a questionable offensive pass interference call, and that play alone had Tolbert deserving his praise.
In saying that, a second-year leap doesn’t mean he is going to be a top three receiver on the Cowboys. Tolbert did so little last season, that just showing up and being competent would be taking a big step forward.
Tolbert will look to continue his momentum in practice leading into the second preseason game versus the Seattle Seahawks.
The linebacker unit may not be the weakness some thought they were going to be
(Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
The Dallas defense is absolutely loaded. Markquese Bell and Israel Mukuamu seem to be filling out the best safety group in the league, while not many teams have players the caliber of Trevon Diggs, Stephon Gilmore, and DaRon Bland as starting corners.
The defensive line is loaded at edge, with a good mix of defensive tackles to rotate, and the linebacker corps was thought of as a defensive weakness as behind Leighton Vander Esch, they were all mostly unknowns.
This game could be the first sign that this isn’t going to be a problem. The team is loaded with big, athletic guys, who have no issues running and playmaking when put in position to do so. Hopefully this game is a beginning to that trend.
Other than Bell, who led the team with ten tackles, the next three top tacklers in the game were all linebackers. Devin Harper, DeMarvion Overshown, and Damone Clark combined for 17 tackles, nine of which were of the solo variety. Clark was a stud, tying for the team lead in solo tackles on a shorter snap count.
The unit made big plays in big moments, with Overshown getting a giant 3rd-and-1 stop with a run stuff, and Harper got a pass deflection along with a fumble recovery to put the game back in reach late.
Vander Esch, Clark, Overshown, Cox, and Harper could be a force on this defense, and not the perceived weakness some thought or even hoped they were.
Running backs will be implemented more in the passing game
Low-hanging fruit would be to say Deuce Vaughn showed he could be RB2 and not just a gadget guy with his 6.3 yards per carry average, including 5.4 yards after contact. The bigger picture for the Cowboys offense could be how the running backs were finally implemented in the pass game though.
(Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
One of the issues some had with Kellen Moore as the offensive coordinator was that he wouldn’t involve the running backs in the passing game often enough and that was never an issue for Mike McCarthy or Brian Schottenheimer as play callers. Through one preseason game the running backs being used in the pass game doesn’t seem to be an issue any longer.
Malik Davis, Rico Dowlde, and Vaughn combined for 11 targets, catching ten of them, for 58 yards. This shows how reliable these throws can be with a 91% accuracy rate, and they went for nearly six yards per reception. The team had backs running routes out of the backfield and were successful on screens.
It allowed the QB to find easy completions to playmakers who could then try to make defenders miss and gain more yards. If this continues, Dak Prescott to Tony Pollard or Vaughn, could break for some big time plays when the games finally count.
You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or at Youtube on the Across the Cowboys Podcast.
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