Dallas Cowboys training camp: Practice #2

The Dallas Cowboys came out in full pads for their second practice of the 2008 training camp. Under bright sunny skies they had a little more physical of a practice and went for the full two hours.

Early on they ran their regular routine of breaking up into positional groups and doing warm up drills. T.O., Jason Witten and Isaiah Stanback caught some deep passes against no defense that entertained the crowd briefly.

After that they ran some 1-on-1 drills with receivers and cornerbacks. Danny Amendola beat Alan Ball for a catch then T.O. got open but was a little miffed with the QB when he threw a poor pass. Patrick Crayton tried to go deep on Orlando Scandrick but Scandrick had pretty good coverage and Crayton couldn’t haul in the pass. Miles Austin totally abused Evan Oglesby for a catch and Sam Hurd got the best of Terence Newman on an in-and-out move. Then the big confrontation, T.O. lined up against Adam Jones; Jones was very physical with T.O. at the line but T.O. got free and ran a dig pattern and AJ had to get a pass interference call to stop him. Ball had good coverage on Stanback but Isaiah still managed to get the catch, Anthony Henry was all over Mike Jefferson giving him no chance and Mark Bradford beat Scandrick who had soft coverage. Quincy Butler had great coverage on Daniel Polk for an incompletion, Amendola beat Newman for a catch and Austin beat Oglesby. Crayton had success on Henry, Jefferson got the better of Scandrick and Hurd caught a short pass on AJ. T.O. and Newman squared-off on a deep fly pattern; T.O. had a step but an undethrown pass from Bartel allowed Newman to intercept it.

After that they broke off into special teams technique drills. They sat large “hula-hoops” on the ground and made players run around the edge of the circle simulating a gunner getting past the blocker. They were using Deon Anderson as the protector on the punt team while Crayton, AJ and T-New were fielding punts.

They came back together for a round of 11-on-11. Romo started with a handoff to MB3 but Spears clogged the hole. Romo threw a poor swing pass to MB3 incomplete, then hit Witten on a short pass. Tashard Choice took a run up the middle but Bradie was waiting for him. Romo attempted a pass that hit AJ in the hip, if he had seen it he might have picked it off. Brad Johnson came on and Choice ran a nice sweep, the T.O. abused Alan Ball but Brad threw a poor pass. Alonzo Coleman tried a run but Jason Hatcher ate him up. Coleman ran again and Ronnie Cruz got a nice block on Tyson Smith up the middle. Sam Hurd made a nice catch in a crowd of defenders. Bartel finished up the first round with a handoff to Keon Lattimore that didn’t get much then threw a dump pass to Lattimore.

Romo was back in and handed to MB3 on the left side. He connected with T.O. on a pass over the middle, then DeMarcus Ware jumped offsides. Choice then ran the ball but Bowen busted that up while Colombo and Ratliff got into a minor melee. Romo finished by hitting Witten for a completion but Ware would’ve had the sack. Brad was next and threw a hitch to Jefferson and then dumped off to Coleman who received a nice pop from AJ. He rolled out on the next play but Erik Walden was in his face the whole way and Brad threw it away. Bartel handed off to Lattimore then hit Polk on the sidelines.

Back to some more special teams drills. The offensive line was over on the side getting intense instructions from Hudson Houck on using the hands to pop a defender in pass protection and giving a little ground then hitting them again.

More 11-on-11. Romo tried a run with MB3 but Zach Thomas ate it up. Romo had to scramble on the next play under a heavy rush. Next he threw a bad pass, then tried a run to MB3 but Roy Williams closed it down nicely. Jason Hatcher batted down his next pass at the line and he finished with a draw but the defense sniffed it out. Brad tried a handoff and fell in the process but it didn’t matter as Tank was in the backfield swallowing up the running back. He then hit Austin on a short pass and AJ once again delivered a nice pop after the catch. After a dump to Coleman he hit Austin on a catch. Bartel handed to Lattimore but Junior Siavii got into the backfield. He finished with a dump to Lattimore.

Romo was back in and hit T.O. on a bomb for a TD beating Newman and Hamlin. Witten caught one between Ellis and Roy, MB3 caught a short pass but Zach was right there to stop him. Then Choice tried to get wide but Zach ran him down for no gain. Romo hit T.O. on a hitch and Witten caught a pass in front of Spencer. Brad had Stanback open after he beat AJ, but the pass was not the best and AJ recovered to break it up. Hurd caught a low pass over the middle but Hatcher had the sack on the play. Oglesby broke up a pass intended for Amendola and then they finished with a short run play. Jeff Terrell came on and tripped while backing out from the center for a busted play and finished the practice with a pass that was tipped in the air and eventually intercepted by Dowayne Davis.

That was it for the morning practice, I’ll have more later today from the afternoon session.