Fresh and rested, Tony Romo has sharpest practice of camp
Tony Romo had the offense clicking during Monday's practice session. Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
9:10 PM CT
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer
OXNARD, Calif. -- Coming off three days of rest Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo had perhaps his sharpest practice of training camp.
Romo completed 15 of 19 passes in team and 7-on-7 drills Monday, raising his camp total to 83-of-128 in those situations.
Romo completed 12 of his first 13 passes, with the lone incompletion a drop by running back Alfred Morris on a check down. Romo and wide receiver Terrance Williams were particularly effective, connecting six times. In the blitz period, Romo found Williams on three of four plays as the defense was paying extra attention to Dez Bryant.
Romo and Bryant hooked up on two crossing routes that would have led to big gains and took advantage of a mix up in coverage by the defense for what would have been a touchdown. Their only misstep came in one-on-one drills, when Romo thought his receiver was breaking up the field on a double route. Instead Bryant broke off toward the sideline.
In his last two practices, Romo has completed 22 of 27 passes. The timing is coming back.
On to the observations:
Set to return to practice Tuesday, rookie RB Ezekiel Elliott went through extensive rehab work with associate athletic trainer Britt Brown. Elliott went through resistance work, running a series of sprints as Brown tugged at an attached cord. He did more running off to the side than he would do in a normal practice. Interestingly, he also carried a football with him through the drills.
Everybody knows about the intensity of LB Sean Lee. It was on full display during the final team period for the starters. On third-and-short, Lee was able to break up a Romo throw underneath to Morris to force a punt. After the play Lee let out a scream.
CB Orlando Scandrick looked to be moving much better Monday than he has for most of camp. He broke up an out route to TE Jason Witten, filled nicely on a Morris run to the outside and smothered his receiver on the aforementioned Lee breakup.
In his first practice of the summer because of an eye injury, LB Damien Wilson was active. Maybe it was fresh legs, but in his first two snaps of team drills he was able to make the tackle, stopping QB Dak Prescott on a zone read in the backfield.
Prescott was able to kill the clock for the offense by coming up with a first-down pass to TE Geoff Swaim on a bootleg. Then he ended the game with a perfect throw on a slant to WR Andy Jones. It was an important play for Jones because he had two drops in the preseason opener. In play-action drills, Prescott made a poor read on a throw to Brice Butler in the middle of the field that was broken up. He had WR Devin Street wide open down the sideline on the play.
LB Kyle Wilber took some work in one-on-one pass rush drills as a defensive end, which might have been the first time that happened in camp. Wilber has served as an emergency defensive end since the Cowboys switched to the 4-3 scheme in 2013.
Instead of running one-on-one drills between the receivers and defensive backs, the Cowboys had two-on-two drills with the corners and receivers to work on reading route combinations and coverages.
K Dan Bailey made all six of his attempts, topping out at 53 yards. Bailey has missed three kicks in camp, two coming from 50-plus yards.
DE Benson Mayowa (knee) and DT Maliek Collins (foot) did not take any team snaps in their first training camp practice of the summer.