Training camp thread...

[boozeman]

Nathaniel Newton Jr @61NateNewton

I have seen better Scrimmages!!!
--------

Gee Nate, no shit?

 

[boozeman]

Besides the awful OL play, it bothered me how ineffective the red zone offense was, even with someone else calling the plays.

I have said it for a while, Garrett's entire offensive system is not very effective as a whole. Gobs of yards between the 20s, demented in short yardage and red zone. Overall, it just isn't designed very well to be efficient when it counts.

To me, that makes it practically worthless if you cannot master the fundamentals of winning football, which is controlling TOP and scoring in the redzone. Otherwise you've got an empty offense that cannot be depended on if the big play is taken away.

 

[Carp]

Imma put some Huskers updates in here.

 

[Cotton]

Cowboys practice report: Day 7

July, 28, 2013

By Calvin Watkins | ESPNDallas.com


OXNARD, Calif. -- The Cowboys conducted their annual Blue-White scrimmage on Sunday. The veteran players conducted a regular practice before the younger players, led by quarterbacks Alex Tanney and Nick Stephens, took over.

*With Dez Bryant missing practice with a sore hip, Dwayne Harris and Miles Austin got the early portions of the first-team snaps. Austin, however, got a break and Terrance Williamssaw some time.

*The young receivers were inconsistent on Sunday. Tim Benford and Jared Green had drops. Benford dropped a TD pass in seven-on-seven while Green let a ball go through his hands. Green also had a touchdown reception in the back of the end zone as he got both feet in. Williams caught a touchdown pass on a slant in the seven-on-seven period. Eric Rogers continues to improve by making catches all over the field, he made an amazing Hail Mary reception over two defenders that was waived off by a sack.

*Linebacker Ernie Sims is on track to make this team as one of the backup linebackers. He penetrated the line and picked up a tackle for loss on Phillip Tanner. Sims is just in the right spots against the run and continues to play physical. If anything happens to Bruce Carteror Justin Durant this season, Sims is more than capable of taking over.

*When the younger players took over both offenses struggled to get anything going down the field. Defensive ends George Selvie and Monte Taylor picked up sacks, Kyle Wilberprovided good pressure on the quarterbacks and the run defense shut everything down. The biggest play from the offense came when quarterback Nick Stephens threw a deep pass, over 20 yards, resulting in a pass interference penalty on Devin Smith. Both young quarterbacks, Stephens and Tanney, didn't register a field goal or a touchdown. Stephens was the only quarterback to get his team across midfield and that was because of the penalty.

*Rookie running back Joseph Randle showed his skills somewhat during the practice when he zipped through the line on a draw up the middle. During the scrimmage, Randle didn't see many running lanes.

*During the two-minute period with the first-team, Bill Callahan was yelling for a timeout and either was ignored or nobody heard him because Tony Romo spiked the ball. Callahan is on the sidelines with Wade Wilson as they call the plays with Jason Garrett standing behind the offense.

*Defensive end Jason Hatcher has been outstanding in training camp practices. We just don't say it enough.

*Linebacker Cameron Lawrence did a nice job of flushing Tanney out of the pocket on a pass rush to force him to throw a pass away.

*You always talk about Jason Witten's ability to make catches but he's a pretty good blocker. When Orlando Scandrick blitzed, Witten moved him out of the way with a strong physical play.

*Safety Jeff Heath had a strong hit on Joseph as he hit the hole.

*There were 8,479 fans at camp on Sunday. The total attendance for camp is 29,816.

 

[Cotton]

Williams continues to improve with strong scrimmage

Former Baylor wide receiver Terrance Williams had a strong practice during Sunday’s team scrimmage, catching several passes for a first down and even a touchdown from quarterback Tony Romo in the seven on seven portion.

It’s been the continuing of an impressive week of camp for Williams after a slow start with a drop pass the first day the Cowboys put on pads.

Williams said he was nervous early and credited fellow receivers Dez Bryant and Miles Austin for positive reinforcement.

“I nervous at the beginning,” Williams said. “The dropped pass brought me down. Dez and Miles told me to let it go. I was nervous being here for the first time. I got used to it. I’m getting better day by day. The goal is not to take a back and keep going forward.”

Clarence Hill

 

[Cotton]

Injury report: No Dez Bryant again

July, 28, 2013

By Calvin Watkins | ESPNDallas.com


OXNARD, Calif. -- Wide receiver Dez Bryant missed his second day of practice Sunday with a sore hip. Bryant did some individual drills but sat out the team portions of practice. Bryant's status is day-to-day and his injury isn't considered serious.

Other notes:

• Defensive tackle Ben Bass (ankle) returned to practice and participated in team and individual drills.
• Wide receiver Cole Beasley missed practice with a sore left knee. Beasley is wearing sleeve.
• Ryan Cook (back), Ronald Leary (calf), Mackenzy Bernadeau (hamstring), Demetress Bell (conditioning), Jermey Parnell (hamstring), Danny Coale (knee), James Hanna(hamstring), LP Ladouceur (calf), Ike Igbinosun (lower leg) and Jay Ratliff (hamstring) also missed practice.

 

[junk]

Besides the awful OL play, it bothered me how ineffective the red zone offense was, even with someone else calling the plays.

I have said it for a while, Garrett's entire offensive system is not very effective as a whole. Gobs of yards between the 20s, demented in short yardage and red zone. Overall, it just isn't designed very well to be efficient when it counts.

To me, that makes it practically worthless if you cannot master the fundamentals of winning football, which is controlling TOP and scoring in the redzone. Otherwise you've got an empty offense that cannot be depended on if the big play is taken away.

Listen, Booze. If only Garrett had 5 All Pro caliber offensive linemen to go along with his HoF TE, deep and talented WR corps and 5 deep TE crew, I'm sure none of this would be an issue.

That darn Jerry Jones! <shakes fist>

 

[junk]

Williams continues to improve with strong scrimmage

Former Baylor wide receiver Terrance Williams had a strong practice during Sunday’s team scrimmage, catching several passes for a first down and even a touchdown from quarterback Tony Romo in the seven on seven portion.

It’s been the continuing of an impressive week of camp for Williams after a slow start with a drop pass the first day the Cowboys put on pads.

Williams said he was nervous early and credited fellow receivers Dez Bryant and Miles Austin for positive reinforcement.

“I nervous at the beginning,” Williams said. “The dropped pass brought me down. Dez and Miles told me to let it go. I was nervous being here for the first time. I got used to it. I’m getting better day by day. The goal is not to take a back and keep going forward.”

Clarence Hill

I loved this pick. I expect him to be more productive, both this season and in his career, than Escobar. You just don't get production out of that second TE.

 

[Smitty]

Listen, Booze. If only Garrett had 5 All Pro caliber offensive linemen to go along with his HoF TE, deep and talented WR corps and 5 deep TE crew, I'm sure none of this would be an issue.

That darn Jerry Jones! <shakes fist>

A couple of decent ones would do the trick.

 

[NoDak]

A couple of decent ones would do the trick.

So if Travis Frederick is decent, we should be good to go with him and Tyron Smith then, right?

Sweet.

 

[Smitty]

So if Travis Frederick is decent, we should be good to go with him and Tyron Smith then, right?

Sweet.

Fail troll attempt.

 

[NoDak]

Fail troll attempt.

You said a couple decent OL would do the trick, did you not?

 

[Smitty]

You said a couple decent OL would do the trick, did you not?

Those were my literal words. You know what I mean though.

You can't have an OL littered with black holes like Livings, Bernadeau and Free. If Free returned to 2010 form, if Leary took over and excelled, if Frederick was a hit, and Smith turned into the player we're hoping, we could probably get by fine with ONE black hole in Livings. But as of right now, I'm not betting on all those things happening.

 

[NoDak]

Those were my literal words. You know what I mean though.

Oh.

So it was a fail Garrett defense attempt then.

Again.

 

[Smitty]

Oh.

So it was a fail Garrett defense attempt then.

Again.

It was a rant against the shitty state of our line again, sure.

Since it looks like the line is gonna suck again this year I'd imagine there are a lot more of those rants coming.

 

[Cotton]

Broaddus: Some Early Observations From Sunday's Scrimmage

Posted 39 minutes ago

Bryan Broaddus
Football Analyst/Scout

Some quick thoughts from my day in the radio booth:

• Thought the Red Zone period with the first offense was outstanding. This offense staff has done a much better job of taking advantage of Jason Witten in his ability to make plays down in that area. Just by the alignment, Romo knew that he had Witten in the middle of the field and it was going to be a big play. Miles Austin also had a nice play with a solid route down near the goal line out of a bunch formation. Witten and Williams were able to clear in front of him and Austin to the flat where Romo showed outstanding touch to get the ball on the line and in his hands.

• Defensive tackle, Jason Hatcher played with some purpose today. With Ratliff on the sideline, Hatcher took reps at the under tackle while Sean Lissemore played on the nose. Hatcher attacked Nate Livings today, several times getting pressure up the field but it was when he was drawn off sides on a Tony Romo hard count where he became a one man wrecking crew. Hatcher played with the power and quickness that we have seen from him before but this time he managed to sustain it throughout and finish the drive which is something that he had struggled with in the past. Hatcher under these defensive coaches, is playing like a man that wants to be more than just a situational player. There have been too many times in his career where he starts a game with some fire only to fade throughout. His work today could be more of what we see in the future.

• Like what I saw from these cornerbacks on this defense today. As a group, I thought that Jerome Henderson and Joe Baker had them ready to play. I always expect Brandon Carrto show up and he did driving on a ball to the sideline for a breakup but backups,B.W. Webb, Sterling Moore, andBrandon Underwood were on top of their games. Webb received a nice dose of work in the slot on the second nickel. It was on a third down play where he played the route perfectly driving underneath a pass fromKyle Orton to secure the interception ending the drive. Sterling Moore continue his fine work in camp by once again, physically playing the receiver on the route but also getting his hand inside to deny the ball on several opportunities. Brandon Underwood is a player, I had not mentioned much in this camp but on this day, he was able to use his length and positioning on Tim Benford to keep him from making a catch in the end zone.

• Tight end Anthony Smith continues to find ways to make plays as a receiver. Smith physcially looks more of the style of a boxy blocker but he has shown the ability to get up the field and make catches with soft hands to secure the ball. He did struggle one time in the running game againstKyle Wilber who beat him inside for a pressure but overall, he has been finding ways to handle blocks off the edge but this able to catch the ball and work up the field, is something that I didn’t know was part of his game.

• Have to say that I was disappointed in the way that guard Kevin Kowalski played this afternoon. With he and Phil Costa in the middle of that second offensive line, I really believed that they would anchor these two young tackles, Darrion Weems and Edawn Coughman but that wasn’t the case at all. From my live look, Kowalski wasn’t at his best today and the line play suffered for it. Up until this point, his play had been rock solid but it didn’t matter who he was matched up with, it was a struggle. He was beaten with quickness from Ben Bass and power from Nick Hayden and Jerome Long. There were too many reps today where Kowalski was reaching, off balance and just in bad football position. To his credit, he took a ton of reps and fought through it but I had honestly seen him play so much better this last week. It will be a good tape for him to see and learn from because I have seen him play better and I know he can.

There was a play where Tyron Smith was beatten for a sack by DeMarcus Ware to end a drive but from my spot in Jones Tower, I liked what I saw from Smith today. I thought he did a much better job of taking the fight to Ware who on several reps this week, had his number. This scrimmage was more of what I expected from Smith in regards of blocking in this zone scheme off the edge but handling a big time rusher like Ware. You have heard me say this a much but when Smith has trouble, it’s usually with quickness inside which is one of Ware’s strengths but today, Smith slammed the door on him with some nice power, with a hard step inside. Smith also was able to get some quality movement when they went to the team run period on Ware which allowed Murray to skate the edge. Overall for Smith, he was the type of player in this practice that I belived that we all envisioned him to be. The sack from Ware was a nice play by him, so you tip your cap but when Tyron Smith needed to get the job done today, he was able to close the deal.

______________________________

Good news about Smith. Maybe he's turning the corner.

 

[boozeman]

Nate Livings is going to be a problem.

He was a marginal player to begin with.

Now he's rusty? He's ripe to be butt-fricked by everydamnbody.

And just think, Bernadeau will be back soon as well.

I am just amazed that we did NOTHING to address this guard situation except cross our fingers.

But we got MFing Escobar. Definitely got him and his completely useless ass right now.

He has done zero in camp thus far. Hell, you can't even pretend he's on the team.

 

[Genghis Khan]

I was just wondering what is going on with Escobar. Haven't even heard his name mentioned in a while.

 

[mcnuttz]

I was just wondering what is going on with Escobar. Haven't even heard his name mentioned in a while.

It was time to shine with Hanna out for a bit.

We do have some pretty sweet 2nd round TE continuity.

 

[boozeman]

Continuity of suck.