Tomorrow Phillips and Garrett make their live game debut in what should be a loud, frenzy-fanpacked Texas Stadium. Everyone, and I mean, everyone is waiting to see how Phillips’ defensive retooling will make the Cowboys more competitive this year. We’ll get a taste of it tomorrow night. Same goes for Jason Garrett; moreover, Garrett was the first coach hired after Parcells left, so you know he’s been at Valley Ranch studying and preparing the Cowboys offense for a return to glory, so there will be high expectations on the offense as well. Tomorrow, these two coaching gurus will step on the field with their students. Will they pass this first test against the powerhouse Colts? It all depends on how you view the game; however, I would think the Cowboys want to make a statement at home and take the win. Akin Ayodele describes it best: “It starts Thursday,” inside linebacker Akin Ayodele said. “All our goals start Thursday. Even though it’s preseason for us, we’re all about dominating.” Let’s take a look at my Top 5 areas in which I will be examining closely in this game: Defense: without a doubt, all eyes will be on the defense.

Last year, the Cowboys managed to slow down the Colts high-octane offense. In doing so, the Cowboys defeated the Colts 14-21. So, the Parcells 3-4 was effective, and the Cowboys offense kept pace. This year the Cowboys will be running the attacking Phillips 3-4, which brings constant pressure on the QB at all times. The Cowboys should be able to slow down the Colts first team offense in this first preseason game. Let’s take a quick look and see how effective the Phillips 3-4 was against the Colts, in previous season’s while he was in San Diego. The Chargers met the Colts twice in the regular season while Phillips was their defensive coordinator: 2004 – @Indy 31-34 (L) (12-4) 2005 – @Indy 26-17 (W) (9-7) So, Phillips has a good idea of what the Colts will bring to the game, he knows about their passing and running game, he’s very familiar with Peyton Manning. Manning & Co.will probably have their hands full with this version of the Phillips 3-4 with our player personnel. The test will come with LB coverage. I’ll be looking close at how the LBs handle the schemes against the Colts offense. We’ll get a good look at Ken Hamlin, he’s been

I just love football season and everything is brings. My most recommended NFL Mock Draft site: NFLDraftCountdown has its first early mock draft. Yes, its early, but its never early to get familiar with this year’s new crop of prospects. Scott Wright does a great job over there. We’ve had him do a few Mock Draft chat’s with us, and he’s pretty knowlegable on the subject.   Here’s who Wright has in very early on:  5. Kenny Phillips – S Miami (FL) (f/Browns) 22. Brian Stewart – RB Oregon State   Also Updated, is the NBC Sunday Night is Football Night site, check it out. Get their Official Schedule Wallpaper here (1024×768) or here Manning vs. Romo   Share

I want to take a peek at an intriguing story that’s developing in the back drop of training camp. At issue, Isaiah Stanback’s roster value versus Jackie Battle’s roster value. When the team plays against the Colts this Thursday night, we’re going to see Battle run over people, make plays, and finish his runs. On the other side of the coin, we will not be seeing 4th round draft pick Isaiah Stanback play. So, how does an undrafted rookie from the University of Houston get on the team? That is the question. I’ve already seen enough from Battle to know he’s the real deal at his position; however, the same cannot be said about Stanback. Stanback has not practiced since we drafted him in April. He missed all the mini-camps, all the OTAs, and all of training camp. To top it off, Stanback was drafted to take over punt returning duties, something he hasn’t even done. He hasn’t played receiver in 4yrs. Would he better at PR than Skyler Green, who was a return specialist in college, but failed to make the team? At this point, we just do not know. His value on the roster seems bleak. What’s the thing that’s saving Stanback’s roster

Terrell Owens returned to practice Tuesday after missing two days because of back spasms. Coach Wade Phillips hadn’t ruled out T.O. playing in the preseason opener. So it appears that after being on the field for the team’s final full workout in the Alamodome, the receiver could start Thursday night against Indianapolis. Owens had an MRI on Monday, when he missed practice for the second day because of muscle stiffness in his lower back. The test showed no problems and Owens got treatment from team trainers. (AP) Having T.O. at wide receiver will take a lot of burden off Romo’s shoulder’s when it comes to the passing game. Not to mention, Romo will be protected by a 2nd year player and a rookie at the tackles spot for the first quarter. Share

Good news for Cowboys fans, FOX will be airing the Colts vs.Cowboys game this Thursday night. The defending Super Bowl Champs will invade Texas Stadium on Thursday. Game starts at 7pm (CST) Be sure to tune in! Rumor has it that Romo will play a full quarter, we’ll see if this happens. Flozell and Colombo are not scheduled to play in this game, so the backups better be ready. Share

Thursday’s game against the Colts cannot get here soon enough. The defense and offense are really getting after each other, and today there was a small skirmish between some offensive players; Julius Jones, Deon Anderson, against defensive FS Patrick Watkins. Apparently Waktins was coming off a blitz and Julius picked up the blitz and basically slammed Watkins to the ground. Watkins got in Julius’ face and rookie FB Deon Anderson jumped into Watkins face and the rumble was on. Julius left the field after practice and didn’t talk to Watkins. Watkins assures us that everything is ok now: “It’s all love,” Watkins said. “We’re not going to try to hurt each other, but sometimes tempers flare.” Looks like the on the field dramatics have subsided, but its time to get these guys in front of another team. This team is pumped and ready to play. Kevin Burnett joked about the on field drama: “It’s part of football, everybody wants to be a bully” Marcus Spears describes the mood on the field: “We’re so ready,” Marcus Spears said. “You see the scuffles going on out there. It’s time for us to hit

Looks like Owens had an MRI to check the status of his back. The AP is reporting that Dallas Cowboys WR Terrell Owens (back) had an MRI exam on his stiff lower back Monday, Aug. 6. Head coach Wade Phillips said the test was precautionary. “We feel sure that he just has back spasms, but we don’t want to take any chances,” Phillips said. “There’s no alarm, but we wanted to make sure.” Test results are not yet known. He’ll probably miss a few practices, so get ready for the flurry of stories coming soon about Owens faking the soarness, you know how the media will take a twist on this. For fans, this should be nothing to worry about. His back is sore, and some time to heal up should do the trick.  (update 5:56pm: The MRI came back negative, good.) Share

With the Cowboys first preseason game of the year coming this Thursday, the Cowboys will have plenty of opportunity to execute some of the attacking defensive schemes Wade Phillips has installed in Dallas. We won’t see the whole arsenal obviously, but I would expect the Cowboys to make it a point to make some stops this time around. When Ellis went down last year, the defensive struggles came with it. Whether or not this was a coincidence is debatable. Ellis won’t play, so we’ll see how Spencer and the others in rotation fare. What I want to see the Cowboys do the most is execute their 3rd down stoppages. Last year, the Cowboys had a difficult time stopping teams on 3rd down, which obviously kept drives alive and teams in the game even if we were ahead. That must end if we want to get to the big game this year. Todd Archer has a good article covering this topic as well. The article states that among the 6 NFC teams in the playoffs, the Cowboys rated the poorest on 3rd down stoppages. The Cowboys allowed teams to convert on 3rd down 43.9% of the time. Akin Ayodele commented on the shortfalls last year: “You don’t want to say this, but it takes a little bit

  Now that we’ve all soaked in Michael Irvin’s HOF speech and read the countless articles, its back to training camp talk. The news of the day comes from yesterday’s practice and the apparent hot water some players have gotten themselves into. Various reports have Phillips chewing out the team due to some players arriving late to practice. This is a big X on any players doing this, especially the younger rookies. But not to worry, Phillips got the team together and delivered some expletives, and anything else needed for him to get the team refocused. Phillips didn’t hold back. Apparently he had the players that were late stand in front of the team and explain why they were late. Looks like rookie FB Deon Anderson was one of the culprits, not good. “I didn’t realize when practices were starting, and coaches were flipping out,” Anderson said. “I’m like, ‘(expletive).’ Now coach is pissed off at the whole team because of what I did.” At one point it was reported that it looked like Phillips was going to punch Deon. I doubt he would punch a player, but whatever was said, I’m sure the late players deserved it. “Then

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Draft Class 2002 Roy Williams 1a No selection: Traded to Kansas City for 1st- and 3rd-round choices in 2002 and 6th-round choice in 2003 1b Roy Williams S Oklahoma 2a Andre Gurode G Colorado 2b Antonio Bryant WR Pittsburgh 3a No selection: Traded to Chicago along with 4th- and 5th-round choices for 2nd- and 4th-round choices 3b Derek Ross CB Ohio State 4a No selection: Traded to Chicago along with 3rd- and 5th-round choices for 2nd- and 4th-round choices 4b Jamar Martin RB Ohio State 5a No selection: Traded to Chicago along with 4th- and 5th-round choices for 2nd- and 4th-round choices 5b Pete Hunter CB Virginia Union 6a Tyson Walter OT Ohio State 6b DeVeren Johnson WR Sacred Heart 6c Bob Slowikowski TE Virginia Tech 7 No selection: Traded to Atlanta along with 4th-round choice in 2001 for O.J. Santiago Share