Terence Newman’s presence would be a welcome addition to a defense that last week had more holes than your average Hollywood movie plot. Newman’s absence forced the Cowboys to give both corners help and that help was in short supply. Forget about Wade Phillips’ happy-go-lucky press conferences where everybody played well – unless he refuses to discuss them – where everybody is coming back from injury soon and Jacques Reeves gets a game ball. If Reeves is going to get game balls all season for play like last week then the Cowboys offense better shatter Minnesota’s all-time points record for a season or the Cowboys will be missing the playoffs.
I thought that Newman was on track to play this week when he practiced on Wednesday and Thursday. Why else would you even put him on the field two days in a row if he wasn’t going to play? But it turns out they’re still unsure about Newman, and Newman is still unsure about Newman. From DC.com, some Newman quotes:
"It's not as good as it could be, but it's a little better," Newman said. "Between now and next Sunday, it'll probably be a little better than it is today. Again, we'll just have to see how it feels from day to day and between here and Sunday and see if I can go or not."
"I can plant off my left foot, I can run, I can plant off my right foot," Newman said. "But some of those things aren't as good as they should be to be good in this league and to do my job well, so for me to be able to do that, that would be a blessing on Sunday."
Besides the possibility of only playing Newman on nickel/dime formations, they might also move him to the other side where he would have to plant less on his bad right foot.
If the Cowboys do play Newman, it might just be in a limited fashion, such as on nickel downs. They may even play him on the right side, where he's been practicing this week, as opposed to the left side, where he has played most of his career. Playing on the right side allows him to plant more often on his good left heel, and less often on the bum right one.
The Tank Johnson to Dallas story won’t go away, and that’s mainly because the Cowboys won’t make it go away. It sure sounds like Dallas is keeping the possibility of signing him as an open question. Jerry confirms they were/are considering it.
"The meat on the bone is there because he's a qualified defensive lineman -- we don't have Jason and we've got to check," Jones said, after speaking at a luncheon at the Petroleum Club in Fort Worth.
"That's the only meat there is to that. The only reason I'm sensitive about it, there is no need to show interest there if we don't have it. Right now, there is nothing there."
Classic denial that is open to possibility. Johnson’s agents have been proactive in talking to Dallas.
The Cowboys were repeatedly approached by Johnson's representation for nearly a month when the Bears cut the tackle in June after he arrested, but not charged, on suspicion of DUI. The Cowboys never showed any interest.
But when Fergie went down, the Cowboys had to look at options.
Nick Eatman doesn’t think T.O. is a pod-person, just a different guy this year because he has trust with the coaching staff. It could be that, or it could be that his body has been taken over by a space alien for reasons us puny humans can’t understand. I guess you can believe either theory, but which one is more logical? I say space aliens.