I stayed up way past my bed time last night to watch the entire Dallas Cowboys preseason game against the Oakland Raiders. Here are are some of my thoughts.
The audio for the telecast was awful. Sounded like it was coming across an old am radio.
The starting Dallas offense looked quite good. Romo spread the ball around well, and the timing was on for everyone, especially for a first game.
Jason Witten will probably be the number one option for catching the ball. The number two option should be Roy Williams, but Martellus Bennett really looked good as well. The chemistry seems much better with T.O. gone.
The offensive line gave Romo forever on his touchdown pass. He could have made a sandwich, cut off the crusts, and eaten it before making the throw.
The Cowboys are very deep at running back, and have two solid tight ends. Other than that, the offense looks shallow.
Sam Hurd looked great. Lots of hustle and talent. He may beat out Miles Austin for the number three wide receiver spot.
The defense looks a bit softer than last year, but has plenty of time to improve. Depth may be a problem for the entire unit.
The Wingstop commercial with Jerry Jones was goofy.
No surprise here, but Kitna is mediocre at back-up quarterback, at best. Let’s hope Romo doesn’t go down, because behind Kitna, we have…
Stephen McGee…
Look, I want McGee to do well. I’ve seen the YouTube videos of him in high school. He was amazing throwing to Jordan Shipley. Then he was horrible for four years at Texas A&M.
Nothing would show the irrelevance of the Aggies than for McGee to do well in the pros after riding the bench there for his senior year. And for other than a couple of whiny, bush-league comments against Texas, he’s seemed like a pretty good kid.
However, last night he was just bad.
Yes, I know he’s a rookie in his first pre-season game, playing with backups, but he was playing against backups as well. His timing was way off, and he seemed to be aiming at the receivers knees.
The Wife pointed out that he spent more time running backwards than anything else. Even when he wasn’t being heavily pursued, he was giving up fifteen yards on his rollouts. When you have trouble throwing accurately much past twenty yards, this is a problem.
Unfortunately, other than for one game against OU four years ago, this is what he did his entire college career. Jason Garrett has got some work in front of him to break that well ingrained habit.
My favorite lines from the announcers:
McGee runs for his life.
McGee hit as he throws to no one.
Some things just don’t change.
Time may be running out for “Fourth and Long” winner Jesse Holley. He got in the game for a kickoff and a few plays, but the ball never came his direction. He did show hustle and desire to block down field, but wasn’t very effective at doing so.
I believe that fulfills the contractual requirements between the show and the Dallas Cowboys, so there’s no guarantee we’ll see him in another game. The first cut is September 1st, so he has at least another two and a half weeks as a Cowboy.
I’d love to see him get a real chance, with some passes coming his way. At this point, he should be hoping to make the practice squad.