Davis had 11 sacks over the last four seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. “Emphasize the positives. Go out, practice and make the corrections”.
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While the Cowboys made it close with the New York Giants in their 2016 opening game on Sunday afternoon, Dallas fell by a final of 20-19 at AT&T Stadium.
If their precursor against Bryant is any indication, the trio of Jenkins, Rodgers-Cromartie and Apple will be up for the test against the Saints’ duo of Brandin Cooks and Willie Snead. Instead, they settled for a field goal. All but one of them, probably, knew the play was to get any yard given and dance out of bounds with about seven seconds on the clock, enough time to maybe run on more quick out to try to move the ball to the 40.
Well, it did not end the way Cowboys fans would have liked on Sunday as Terrance Williams showed awful judgement on the final play but we did get some valuable insight to this team for this upcoming season. But absolutely the Giants caught a break. Prescott would finish with a 25-of-45 line for 227 yards, and Elliott would rush for 51 yards on 20 carries.
And they were. McAdoo obviously wants more turnovers on defense and also less penalties from his team, but those are always the complaints from any head coach. A receiver like Bryant has to make that catch, and he just did not according to the rules.
The Dallas Cowboys might have given the keys to the vehicle, or offense in this case, to rookie quarterback Dak Prescott, but they wouldn’t let him get out of second gear. Dez Bryant definitely should have had more features in the game plan and particularly more looks on things other than “go” routes and fades. He had 3.5 sacks in 14 games a year ago with Jacksonville and 6.5 sacks in 2014 in 16 games with the Jaguars.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, victor of the prestigious “Sam Bradford Ribbon for Preseason Achievement”, was good not great; the Cowboys owned the time of possession by over thirteen minutes, they didn’t have any turnovers, and they outgained the Giants in yard. There just weren’t very many creases. “We’ve all played in games where sun or weather was a factor and my experience has been that it’s a factor for both teams and everybody who’s out there”. The Giants, even after their summer of struggles, still have quick-strike ability. But the way he caught the ball on the last play of the game he was quite awkward and off balance. According to Cowboys.com staff writer David Helman, the Giants’ defensive line was credited for tackles on 15 of Elliott’s 20 rushing attempts. Should he have gone for it considering a punt didn’t gain much? Brad Wing was forced to punt, giving the ball back to the Cowboys with 1:05 to play.
It seems that McAdoo was trying to run the clock down to not leave any time for the Cowboys. “What happened at the end of the day, we beat a rookie quarterback in his first game”.
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“It pretty much tells us that we’re not the same defense as last year”, said defensive end Olivier Vernon, the most expensive signing from Miami (five years, $85 million, $52.5 million guaranteed), who was constantly in the backfield Sunday. Not sure what they’re going to do with it.
