The Dallas Cowboys kicked off the 2006 season (sort of) by defeating the Seattle Seahawks 13-3 in their first preseason game of the season. The story of the game for the Cowboys is definitively Tony Romo. He showed incredible poise in the game and was deadly accurate, going 19-25 for 235 yards and 1 TD to Patrick Crayton. OK, I'm getting on the Romo bandwagon, not for the starter's role, I'm not even going there. But after watching him in training camp for two weeks, and then this performance against Seattle, I feel much better about him having to take over for Bledsoe in case of injury.
Greg Ellis also had a very successful debut as an OLB. He got a sack, several pressures and made two tackles. This should give the veteran a lot of confidence going back to Oxnard this week. If he can continue to build on tonight, he may just end up being our starting OLB during the regular season on every down.
Patrick Crayton and Sam Hurd also showed some things in the first half. Crayton made a great catch and scored the lone TD, ending the night with 4 receptions and 61 yards. Hurd showed a little nervousness by dropping a pass and not getting another that he might've caught, but he also made 4 catches for 40 yards, including a sweet one-handed catch.
The defense as a unit played excellent ball all night, allowing only 3 points, and was very good against the run in the first half when Alexander and the Seattle starters were still in the game. The defense was also were credited with 6 sacks. And I have to give myself a little credit, I told you guys last week that Junior Glymph was a dark horse candidate for the roster, that he just kept making plays in camp. Well, tonight he had two sacks and two forced fumbles with one recovered by Jason Hatcher. Also, I said watch for SS Abram Elam and he ended up with 5 tackles (tied for the team lead) and 2 assists for the night.
On the down side, Pat Watkins had a tough series when he slipped in coverage against Peter Warrick allowing a big gain. He also got a face-mask penalty on the next play. There was also a bad snap/hold on a FG but Suisham was able to just barely get it over the crossbar. The Cowboys also committed too many penalties during the game and need to get that under control.
Overall though, Cowboys fans have to be pleased with tonight's performance.
Reports were that Patrick Crayton hurt his right ankle, but I don't know the severity of the injury.