Dallas Cowboys training camp: Practice #3

The afternoon practice was punctuated by the arrival of first round draft pick Felix Jones. We kept an eye out for Mike Jenkins but he never showed. (Correction: Shango let me know that he did show in the middle of practice but didn't participate). The Cowboys practiced in shorts and shoulder pads.

In the early session when they were running skeleton offense they practiced some end-arounds to T.O. and Isaiah Stanback. Felix Jones was running with the second string at this point and did for a lot of the practice.

After the standard warm-up drills and stretching, they moved into 7-on-7 drills. BTW, on the opposite end of the field where I couldn’t see, they were running one of my favorite drills, 1-on-1 OL/DL; sorry can’t report on that. Romo started out with a short pass to Martellus Bennett and then hit Witten on a slant in front of Roy. After a bad pass that was incomplete to Cricket, Romo hooked up with Witten on a long pass where Jason had to spin around to make the catch, beating Bradie. He finished with a short pass to Cricket then led Austin a little too much causing a tough chance that Austin couldn’t pull in.

Brad Johnson hit Curtis on a quick slant with Curtis lined up wide then hit Danny Amendola on a crossing pattern followed by Crayton on a crossing pattern. (They ran a lot of crossing patterns today). Johnson finished by dumping one to Witten in the flats. Bartel was up next and hit Lattimore on a short pass then overthrew Daniel Polk.

Romo came back on and threw short to MB3, then hit Witten on a short pass in front of Spencer. He tried to connect with Bennett over the middle but Bradie made a nice play to break up the pass. Then T.O. cooked Anthony Henry on a deep fly pattern but dropped the ball earning jeers from the crowd. Romo then hit Austin on a hitch and he juked Orlando Scandrick. Romo closed with a poor pass intended for Witten.

Brad threw a dump pass to Choice over the middle where the linebackers had totally vacated the zone. Then in what had to be the surprise connection of the day, he hit FB Ronnie Cruz on a fairly deep pass down the sideline. Who would’ve thunk it? Afterwards, he underthrew Mike Jefferson on a deep ball that Evan Oglesby jumped to pick-off. He concluded by hitting Hurd on a short pass near the sideline. Jeff Terrell was next and had a terrible overthrow then Tyler Everett broke up a pass intended for Austin.

They broke for some FG’s with Nick Folk hitting six, missing one just left and hitting the left upright on another. They also practiced punts with AJ, T-New and Crayton doing the catching honors. During this time the o-line was working on blocking down the line, driving the defense to the edges.

Up next was 11-on-11. Romo started with a bad pass, then tried to hit T.O. on a deep pass down the sideline but T.O. fell. Hamlin had the perfect opportunity to pick the ball off but he dropped it so he dropped and gave us 10 pushups. Romo overthrew Hurd who had a step on Ball then they ran an end-around with Austin that but the defense stayed at home. Witten then cooked Justin Rogers on a seam pattern for a big gain. Romo finished by hitting T.O. with a short pass over the middle but Roy came in and dislodged the ball from his hands for an incompletion.

Brad ran a draw to Choice that went for no gain, then threw a quick slant to Jefferson. Bennett beat Burnett on a crossing pattern followed by an attempted Coleman run but Ratliff shut it down. Bartel tried a pass to the sidelines but Bradie tipped it then dumped a short one to Lattimore.

Romo came on and attempted a pass down the sideline to T.O. who had a step on AJ, but AJ ran over T.O. knocking him on his butt in what surely would have been pass interference. Next was an end-around to Stanback that had the defense fooled and would’ve gone for big yards. They tried to run a screen to MB3 but Tank burst through and got in Romo’s face causing an errant throw that hit Kosier in the back and was almost intercepted by Ball. Romo hit Bennett in between the middle linebackers then threw a hitch to Hurd that was low and hit the ground. He finished by hitting Crayton for a catch after he had beat Butler.

Brad started with a draw to Choice but Bradie ate it up. Jefferson caught a short pass in front of Henry, then Amendola dusted Henry on a crossing pattern that was impressive. Brad finished with a draw to Coleman. Bartel started with running play that succeeded because Joe Berger got a nice block on Bowen. He hit Mark Bradford on the sidelines after he beat Oglesby in coverage.

Brad came back on and hit Austin on a crossing pattern then Felix Jones tried a middle run to no avail. After a short pass to Curtis they tried a run to Choice but Zach filled the hole. Jeff Terrell closed the practice with roll-out but everybody was covered and Ware ran him down. The final play was a dropped slant by Bradford.

That’s all for today, I’ll be back at you tomorrow with another report. Shango and I are doing the DCFanatic show tonight at 8 PST/11 EST.