What I like best:

• Offensive play calling, I sure liked it eating up the clock
• Offensive line pass blocking, Romo had plenty of time
• Kickers! (punter, too!)

Our vanilla preseason offense was better than anything I saw from all of last season.  Red zone struggles probably had a lot to do with the inability to run the ball which in turn probably had a lot to do with the fact that the opposing DL was at 110% health and strength.  Once they wear down, it should be easier to score.

Garrett really knows how to get the tight ends open and that helped Matt Moore a lot.  In fact, Moore looked like a product of the system out there and there's nothing that puts a bigger grin on my face than knowing the Cowboys now have offense where players are products of the system rather than the system being a product of the players.

We can list a lot of things that went well tonight, the timing in the passing game was terriffic.

I was more than happy to see Matt Moore, a guy Ron Jaworski said could've been a late first round draft pick if he played on a better Pac 10 school, play so well.  I agree, he could have a future.

I don't think the poor rushing was Barber's fault neccessarily.  It looks like Garrett is trying to install a little bit of a zone rushing attack.  Barber was breaking tackles in the backfield just to get back to the line of scrimmage.  With the size of our offensive line I really don't understand why we'd want to implement a zone style rushing attack.

Depth wise, I'm really impressed with this team.  There are going to be some great players cut from this team.

I was a little dissapointed with the pass coverage and seeing Jamel Richardson drop two very catchable passes by Moore.

I say him numerous times - standing around looking at guys in the backfield - or trying to hit someone in the backfield - was he blocking that well ? I say the time he made it to the second level and planted that LB'er

Marion Barber continues to impress.  I'm in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp, but I did like the point that Troy Aikman brought up about him having pretty good moves for someone who is supposed to specialize between the tackles.

I was against paying Leonard Davis (and said so rather loudly on here).  But I must say, I love the way he played tonight, especially on the first drive.  I was against the signing because, in the salary cap era, it does not seem wise to invest that much money into the guard position (Parcells thought it was the easiest position on the field to draft/plug-in for).  I'd heard he was big, but damn, he looked HUGE out there.  Plus, for someone who is supposed to have mobility problems, he seemed to gain the second level prety well (pancaking some poor Colts LB in the process).  We'll have to see how he does over the long run, of course, but I'm liking the immediate returns.

Roy Williams, similar to last year, seemed to be a step to slow in the secondary.  I'm not sure if this was just because I noticed it on certain plays (or if I'm predisposed), but he has not shown enough yet to soothe my fears about his coverage.

Finally, the person who's development our season (future) depends on:  I thought he was pretty good.  Obviously, his numbers were very good.  And while I'm not sure he was as good as his numbers tonight (plus the fact that the Colts probably didn't game plan-nor could they have with a new offensive system in place), he seems to have gotten better over the offseason.  A little bit more calm back there (I especially liked the play where everything was falling apart, he slipped and then just went down instead of trying to reverse-back-flip-between-the-legs or some such...ended up getting a deserved roughing the passer call, too).  I hope that the offense doesn't get too TO-centric (although, you could argue he was underused at times last year).  But still, he seemed to do a good job of hitting his 1st, 2nd and dump off receivers.  

He's still improving and I wouldn't put him in the top tier of QB's quite yet, but he's showing the development we've all been hoping for that could get him there.  If he continues what we saw tonight, next season he could join the elite QB group.

zero pass rush from the front three.  I have no idea where we would be without Ware.

I have always liked Spears & Canty but they have to step it up.  Our defense would improve dramatically if we could get pressure from any of our down lineman.

I guess this is nothing new ... but thats what makes it so frustrating.

It looked like the cowboys game planned and the colts didnt. under parcels they never gameplaned until the 3rd preseason game so im happy what i saw but will hold judgement until week three when other teams will be gameplanning.

also the defense looked vanilla which is good dont show to much in preseason play them straight up not worried about the pass rush i have faith in wade defense

in the NFL Gamebook. First Julius Jones ran entirely against the Colts' first defense. MB3 ran entirely against the Colts 2nd defense. Big difference. Also Julius was stuffed on two plays - both around Rt end where Martin was probably way over matched and still averaged 3.7. MB3 averaged 4.0 and TT averaged 3.1 and battle 2.8. Julius had only 1 pass thrown to him across the middle for 13 yard gain. I suspect that the staff does not want to expose much of that in preseason but it sure looked good. MB3 caught 3 passes for about the same yardage.

Ken Hamlin concerns me. There feels like more than they are telling us.

NFLN said after the game that the 1st O-line run blocking was really outstanding. Considering McQ and Martin are subs that bodes well for this year. I am concerned that Free's sprained knee gets well. It seems as though he is only backing up at LT - is that accurate?

Third down % for the Colts was 36% and 50% for Cowboys. Fourth down was 67% for Colts and 100% for Cowboys.

When the leading rusher for the Colts is their 3rd string QB it says the Phillips 34 is stopping the run.

Joey Thomas was credited with 5 unassisted tackles to lead the team along with 1 INT and 1 PD. Obomese had 2 tackles, an assist, a forced fumble, a sack and 1 pass defensed. Two young bucks making their opportunity.

Bradie James was credited with only 2 assists and no tackles. Ayodele had 2 tackles and no assists. Neither had a pass defensed. Anthony Spencer had nothing. Ware had 2 tackles and 1 assist. They do not show a hurry for Ware but I saw one in the highlights.

Special Teams coach is a rookie and it showed. No way that is all trying new guys. Maybe showing up late for special teams practice needs some more yelling. In any case a repeat is going to bump some guys maybe we don't expect right off the team.

We played a tackle on offense (#62) I did not even know we had - Pete Lougheed.

Time of possesion was 37 minutes. Outstanding. I like Matt Moore and think he showed some things tonight. Nice first step.

It was Newman with the roach according to DC.com.

Before we start mixing up the Super Bowl koolaid ...let's remember that this was the Colts D which didn't even show up last year until the playoffs and have already had some key losses. Remember Grizz's camp reports on how the D seemed to be getting the best of our O most of the time? I think our O benefited last night from practicing against a D that was much better than the Colts D. If Red Ball does well against the Broncos, I'll feel much better.

Don't call me a hater...just cautiously optimistic.

For preseason, this looked mighty good to me. Garrett looked like he was having fun and his stuff was clicking. Romo was sharp. (Wish he had seen wide-open Witten when he went to a covered TO in the end zone that time.) JJ looked good with the pass over the middle for a first down. Barber was impressive after he found his groove. Tyson has improved a lot and looks solid. Fasano and Curtis both looked good. Davis looked fine and the backup tackles got it done; that's a relief. Moore looked sharp, but Johnson was kinda sad with the fumble-bumble-stumble.

Defensively, not too shabby but I am still waiting to see the monster pass rush. I know it's coming. Couple of pressures that resulted in incompletions. Henry made a good save at the goal line. Loved Killa's pick for six. D kinda fizzled when the scrubs came in.

Kickers all looked good, but, man, the coverage teams sucked. Good to see us pounce on the on-side attempt though.

Wade and company should be pleased. Good start.

Caveat- Indy doesn't prepare for the first preseason game at all.

Positive:

I was impressed with Romo's accuracy and pocket presence.  There were 5 plays that would have been a sack with Bledsoe/Johnson et al.  I'm not too interested in yards or td's or what not in the first preseason game with all the vanilla stuff.

JJ impressed me with his attitude.  He was looking to "bring it" and it showed.  He's no Barber in the "bringing it" category, but I expect a big year from JJ.

Fasano has improved by leaps and bounds.  Perhaps "mini witten" would be a descriptive nickname.  Good hands and a knack for finding the soft spots in the zone.

Gramatica is a keeper.

Negative:

The defense didn't look sure of themselves.  Several busted assignments.  Hope that gets cleared up in the next 3 weeks.

Coverage unit got gashed on the first kick.  We must do better there.  

Brad Johnson was shaky.  Plus I don't like him holding on FG/PAT's.  We saw in the playoffs that you sometimes need someone to run from that spot on occasion and I can moon-walk faster in golf spikes on shag carpet than BJ can run on turf.  Stanback or Crayton should handle this duty.

Overall:

Solid outing.  Looking forward to the development.  Romo is the man.

T