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Latest news has the commish reinstating Adam Jones. He’s back at Dallas and has been slated to start his first game after Thanksgiving against the loser Steelers.

Felix Jones is also back at practice, this is the news we’ve all been hoping to hear. Adding Felix back into the mix at this point of the season will be a very good thing for the offense. The Cowboys have been riding Barber hard for several weeks, and he’s stepped up bigtime, but he really could use some breaks during the game. Tashard Choice looked good in preseason, but for whatever reason he’s been a non factor in spelling Barber for any carries.

Per DMN Blog:

Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones suspended four games
Tim MacMahon   E-mail   News tips

Calvin Watkins reports that commissioner Roger Goodell has suspended CB Adam “Pacman” Jones four games for his fight with team-appointed bodyguard Tommy Jones at a downtown Dallas hotel….

Lets move on, what a waste of a 4th rounder. Get Jenkins in there and let him earn his keep. 1st round pick, its time to step up.

Nothing but bad news on the defensive front, and the news hits us in our weakest disappointing portions of the defense, the secondary. Apparently, the clock hit midnight on Adam Jones, and his alter-ego, Pacman has reared his ugly head. The news is breaking tonight, so we’re not sure what the implications if any will be. One thing is for sure, just the fact that Adam has his name back out there in a negative light, and off the field again does not bode well for him or the Cowboys.

The leash is probably short on the Cowboys and Adam Jones. I’m sure Roger Goodell is disturbed by this latest development. A suspension is definitely not going to be ruled out, if anything a fine will be dealt. I would think a fine would be what the Cowboys do, just for the fact that a game suspension would be very bad for us right now, we’re all banged up back there. We’ll have to see what comes of this. Here are the latest details:

KTVT-TV in Dallas (CBS 11) is reporting that Adam “Pacman” Jones got into a violent altercation with a member of his security detail at a hotel in downtown Dallas last night.

Per the TV station, a mirror was broken in Pacman’s room, and he left the hotel without paying his bill. No police report has been filed and hotel management declined comment. (DMNBlog)

So, we’ll see what happens there, it could be a non-issue or a big issue considering our market, and the player. On top of the Jones news comes the news that Terence Newman will miss another game. He’s not going to play against the Cardinals. These injuries are happening in greater frequency and should be concern for the future. According to Phillips, Newman is probably out:

Wade Phillips said CB Terence Newman is “probably out” of Sunday’s game in Arizona because of an abdominal strain, not the groin injury that sidelined him from the first week of training camp through the season opener. (DMNBlog)

Its time to let Mike Jenkins earns his bones this week. Start Jenkins opposite Henry, and let him take his lumps and make plays. We can no longer rely on Newman, and Adam Jones is one screw up from being banned forever. Throw Jenkins out there and get him going, we’re going to need him this year, and probably more further down the season; moreover, Jenkins will need to be the guy in 2009, that’s clear to me now. Let’s see what we got.

Forget the score, what I wanted to see is how the first teamers would do in their time on the field. If tonight’s game is a dress rehearsal and a sneak peek of things to come, then I’m nearly satisfied, not completely, but almost.

First things first….do we need to redo Marion Barber’s contract already? I mean, this guy is the real deal, and is playing in Pro Bowl form already, give him a raise, lol. Just kidding, but c’mon, Barber is the man. Wow. Let’s take a look at what stuck out in this game.

Special Teams is Done

Alright, let’s get the negative portion of this game out of the way. There’s just no way to sugar coat this, and there’s no one that is going to convince me otherwise, but we need a change on special teams. Bruce Read is not getting these guys ready, they are not taking his coaching or something. There is something wrong here. Too many inconsistencies, and this will be a liability. The opening play of the game was a huge return into Cowboys territory. Kickoffs are so inconsistent it would almost be better to try onside kicking it. Wade, make a change please. I could see your frustrations from here.

Isaiah Stanback had some good returns, and looks to be the guy to win out the kick return spot. He needs to work on holding the ball, I knew he would put the ball on the ground with that one arm cradle - bit him in the butt tonight. Unfortunately, Stanback injured his left shoulder tonight, the severity of the injury is not known at this time, he is scheduled to have an MRI tomorrow. One of Stanback’s knocks has been his durability in college and in the pros its the same. I was just now beginning to see some value in this pick, but if he’s injured again that’s not good.

First Team Offense

These guys were firing on all cylinders. The Cowboys established dominance on the line of scrimmage and manhandled the Texans’ defensive lineman. Barber, Romo, Crayton, Owens, Hurd, Witten, O-line, everyone looked pretty good and this is exactly what we needed to see. If Crayton can play like this every game, then we’re going to do well at WR. Good job all around, any concerns or worries about the first teamers this preseason should be silenced now. With the exception of Romo’s poor decision for an INT, Romo looked really good out there. This will be it for the starters, some may not get much playing time at all in the final preseason game.

First Team Defense

DeMarcus Ware was bringing the pressure all half and it effected Matt Schaub. Schaub made some bad throws, as a result of the pressure frome Ware and the rest of the starting defense. Adam Jones did a good job out there, he pretty much shutdown Andre Johnson. The pressure upfront made a real difference in the secondary coverages, this is what we’re going to need going into the season as well. We were able to slow down the Texans without Newman, so when the season comes around, we’re going to be stacked in the secondary with Newman, Henry, Jones, Jenkins, and Scandrick. The rookies are going to be good players for us, they play with confidence and are ready to contribute. The only strike I would give the defense are the “let downs” after we take a lead in the game or after a mistake by our offense. If you haven’t noticed you’ll see the defense become complacent after we take a somewhat comfortable lead, and then they let the opposing offense back in game. The Cowboys were set to go up 17-3, until Romo threw the INT in the endzone, the defense then gave up 80 yards for a TD without much resistance.

Martellus Bennett

I have to hand it to the rookie, he’s made some plays when he’s caught the ball, he’s been hard to take down after the catch on several instances, not too bad. He get’s some love from the fans tonight for the second straight preseason game. Keep making plays.

Brad Johnson took over in the 2nd half and had another solid outing in the passing game 9/13 for 107 yards. You can pretty much forget about us dumping Johnson for another QB. I don’t think there’s an urgency like we had once believed there to be. Of course, I’d like an upgrade here, but its not looking like it will happen this year at least.
Felix Jones had a strange night, he never got going, and had a fumble. I thought we would see Jones out with the first teamers tonight, but I think we’ll see that next game, I dont see Barber playing much at all next game, so this could give us a better look at Jones with the first team offensive line. I’m not concerned about this at all, I just want to see how much damage Jones and Barber are going to do together with the first team o-line.

Orland Scandrick could be a steal in the 5th round, he’s looking pretty good out there in the nickel and dime packages, he can play. Scandrick has been an instant upgrade in the package formations.

Bobby Carpenter looks average to me out there, he just doesn’t seem to attack much at all, I think he’s still stuck in the Parcells’ read and react approach, or maybe he’s succumbed to the backup role and peaked, he’s a good backup. Yes he had several tackles, but he played most of the game, so the stats don’t sell me; moreover, he definitely hasn’t done anything to make us remember his play.

Fundamentals

Two dumb turnovers by Stanback and Jones resulted in scoring drives by the Texans, they need to cover up the ball. One thing I have noticed is that Bennett is actually doing well in this arena. I think Garrett has coached him well in covering up the ball once defenders come at him, he’s been covering the ball with both hands. Stanback has a bad habit like Patrick Crayton, they run around all crazy with their arms out in the open cradling the ball with one arm out in the open, easy to knock that ball out. These are fundamentals, that need to be fixed. Same for Jones, he shouldn’t have fumbled that ball, but it was the same deal with him.

Concerns

Special teams, special teams, special teams. Wade, Jerry, I think enough is enough, make a change here please. If anything, we can only get better with a coaching change, I don’t see how we could play any worse on special teams at this point. Phillips is a smart guy, I can’t see how we could go into the season with this liability in place.

The injury continues to rear its ugly head and the season has not even gotten here yet. 2nd year OLB Anthony Spencer had his knee scoped out and will be out 2-4 weeks, meaning he’ll probably miss the first two games of the year (Browns & Eagles), at the minimum. Spencer’s injury will add another dynamic to the guessing game when it comes to the final 53. Looks like Eric Walden could be one of those players that makes it. We’ll see how this plays out.

The Cowboys thought Spencer suffered a bone bruise on his knee during the preseason opener. They considered him day-to-day after it happened, but doctors decided to clean up part of the patella tendon because of swelling.

“It kept getting irritated,” Phillips said. “It’d go down and then it’d go back. There was just a particle in there that kept catching.” (DMNBlog)

According to Coach Phillips, Adam Jones will start against the Texans, this could be a preview of things to come, its just a matter of time before Jones plays a bigger role on the starting defense, we’ll probably see Jenkins play some more Nickel with Jones out there as well

“I just think he needs to play, and he’s shown he can play,” Phillips said. “He had a good game last week and needs some more.”

First-round pick Mike Jenkins started at left CB the first two preseason games. Jenkins will continue to play on that side in the substitution packages with Pacman moving across the field. (DMNBlog)

I’d like to see us make some more plays in the secondary, this was our achilles heel last season, and we’ve brought in several players to make a difference. Its time too see a preview of that difference with Jones starting and Jenkins coming in on various defensive packages. This is going to be a good test for the Cowboys. The Texans are really coming along and they have some very underrated talent at WR. Andre Johnson is their #1, but look for Kevin Walters, Andre Davis, and Jacoby Jones to give our secondary fits if we’re not prepared.

The game was blacked out for me, and attempting to watch the game online didn’t cut it for me. After I saw the game replay on NFL Network I found myself not to concerned. Some of the comments during the game had me concerned, but after watching the game myself I knew it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

The main beef was the penalties, yes we had a lot of penalties, but I would say at least half of those were total BS nit-picky calls. Sometimes I think the refs are also getting their practice in by being extra picky, so they can get their verbiage down pat. There were some stupid calls out there. Of course the other half were legit and that can be attributed to discipline. Whether you agree with the penalty calls or not, the Cowboys have racked up alot of penalty yards. These are mistakes, and Wade said himself that the mistakes were on him and effort was on the team. We can’t go into the season with these types of penalty riddled games.

As for the gameplay, the Bronco’s 1st teamers manhandled our 1st team defenders, bigtime. Besides Zach Thomas, there was a lot of sloppy tackling and inability to wrap up players. The secondary had some struggles tackling after the catch as well, just plain sloppy.
Special Teams -  the special teams looked somewhat better, but I want to see more consistency. There were some seams in the return game for Adam Jones and Isaiah Stanback.

Mike Jenkins - the Broncos went after Jenkins and were able to capitalize several times. Brandon Marshall scored a easy TD on Jenkins. Overall Jenkins didn’t have such a good night in my opinion.

Bobby Carpenter - missed a couple of tackles, Andre Hall ran right through him early in the game, he just didn’t make any plays that stood out. He, along with the rest of the defense didn’t seem to have an answer to the zone blocking early on. They’ll get another shot next week when we play the Texans, they use the same style.

Adam Jones - looked better in this game, looks like his timing is getting better, he had several near INTs in this game, coupled with his nice punt return. Its just a matter of time before Jones is back and free from the rust. He looked good.

Zach Thomas - this dude is bad to the bone. Thomas has the type of intensity we need at LB, bigtime upgrade over Akin Ayodele.

Felix Jones - when you watch Jones you can “feel” something is going to happen, as in big yardage or a breakaway homerun TD. I’m excited about this rookie. When we have Barber and Jones back there in the backfield, watch out. Defenses will have to pick their poison. Jones has really good hands, and has been money in the passing game. The cat is out the bag.

Tashard Choice - they didn’t run him much tonight, he had negative yardage on 2 plays, and had one catch for 9 yards; however, he did have a nice punt block. Very good. Not too bad for a short night of work.

Danny Amendola - wasn’t much of a factor, he had 1 catch for 12 yards and 1 punt return for 9 yards. There was that INT that Bartel threw at the end of the game, its questionable whether or not Amendola has some fault since the pass came his way he inadvertedly faked out Bartel and then the INT happened. I’m not sure that was his fault, but its there for the coaches to look at.

Martellus Bennett - gotta give him some props. He didn’t do anything that deserved any lashings, he had a nice catch and bulldozed for a few yards and covered up the ball too. Looks to be taking the coaching from John Garrett after all. Now, I’m not completely sold, he’s a rookie and needs to keep it going. I don’t want to see him show up at the Texans game and screw up. Keep it going.

Brad Johnson - he had some better blocking in this game, and he looked better. Let’s just hope the line keeps protecting Romo most of all. I don’t feel comfortable with Johnson for any stretch during the season.

Alan Ball - I don’t think he makes the team, he’s not playing well at all. He’s definitely looking like a late round pick, he had a rough night in coverage.

Dreadlocks - either I missed something, but looks like there’s some sort of mandate on the dreadlocks for players. Over the last few games, I’ve noticed the players donning pony tails to hold there’s dreadlocks together. Not just Cowboys players but other players in the league.

Well that’s it. Its the preseason, we’re always going to have work to do, but we can’t give away our new plays, and we can’t reveal our full arsenal. I’m not too worried; however, I would like to see more intensity and swagger from other players, we just don’t have enough of that.

The Texans are next, and expect another Texas sized brawl. The Texans are no longer the caretakers of the NFL’s basement, these guys are turning the ship around. I’ll take a closer look later in the week. Its going to be a tough game.

Adam Jones no longer wishes to be known as “Pacman” and has basically disavowed himself from his past. Hence forth, he shall be known as Adam Jones, and we’ll do the same on this blog.
So, here’s to you Adam! Dominate in 2008 and beyond. We all look forward to seeing you step it up on and off the field.